Ma protege smashes Asian record

Ma protege smashes Asian record

BEIJING, FEBRUARY 23: Yin Lili, the latest protege of controversial Chinese athletics coach Ma Junren, has smashed the Asian indoor record at 3,000 metres.

Her time wiped more than seven seconds off compatriot Wang Chunmei's Asian record of 8:53.44 set in Japan last year. The fastest indoor time in the world this year is 8:35.21 by Romania's Gabriela Szabo.

Wang, running in the second heat, also improved her previous mark with a time of 8:50.68.

Two other Ma runners, Dong Yanmei and Li Ji, also dipped under the old record with second places in the two heats. Ma said he was not surprised by the fast times of his new stable of virtually unknown athletes in the 3,000 metres, which is no longer an Olympic distance.

"Its not surprising for them to run past the time of theasian record after training in the winter camp. It is important to make qualification for the games," he said after the race.

The flamboyant former middle school teacher, a folk heroin China for the huge success of his athletes in the early 1990s, stood by the side of the track throughout yelling at his athletes to run faster. More afp kim bsk dd sre 02231500 B

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Ma has been rehabilitated by the Chinese athleticsauthorities in a bid to bring the country success in Sydney, and his reappearance on the National scene has generated a buzz of expectation.

Ma was mobbed by journalists at his first publicappearance on Sunday for the beijing international ekiden marathon relay race in which his teams took first and second place.

He shot to fame when his stable of relatively unknownwomen's runners produced a stunning clean-sweep of the middle and long distance events at the 1993 world athletics championships in stuttgart, Germany.

The sudden success led to a whispering campaign aboutdrug taking, but ma always firmly denied the reports. He credited the success to his training methods and his natural potions of caterpillar fungus and turtle's blood.

But after dominating the 1994 asian games, albeit withpoor Times, the army of runners virtually disappeared from international view, although wang junxia won the 10,000 meters gold at the 1996 olympics after breaking from ma.

Ma's absence was blamed on the outspoken coach refusingto abide by new rules implemented by the Chinese Sports federation on qualifying for the National team for major international events.

However, it now appears he is willing to play by thequalification rules.