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Ma Junren bids farewell
China's maverick track coach Ma Junren has retired from Chinese track and field, according to a local newspaper. Ma stepped down from his role as vice-head of Liaoning Provincial Sports Bureau on December 1, meaning the controversial coach is bidding the track farewell. "I will not go back to the track. It is my final goodbye to the sport," he was quoted as saying in the Harbin Daily. Ma's leaving brings an end to the era of "Ma's Army," a group of long-distance women runners who shone internationally in early 1990s and dominated China's field in the past ten years. Track and field in Liaoning suffered a severe setback recently and local government officials want to bring back Ma who fell into obscurity after his runners were axed from the Chinese team for the 2000 Sydney Olympic Games due to suspicious blood tests. The local government is aiming to achieve a better result in next year's Tenth National Games in Nanjing. But Ma, 60, refused the job with many still believing he's targeting an Olympic gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Games. He expressed confidence in his former squad, saying the young athletes of Liaoning Province would reach high levels like former members Olympic champion Wang Junxia and former world record holder Dong Yanmei. "There are many promising young athletes in the Centre. I believe they have the ability to clinch gold medals at the 2008 Beijing Olympics," he told the newspaper. Known for turtle blood, caterpillar fungus and an extremely hard training schedule, Ma, leading a group of women runners, stunned the world by winning gold medals and breaking world records in the 1993 Stuggart World Championships. His runners continued to break world records in China's seventh National Games but a bust-up inside the team caused several members to leave, including Wang who won the 5,000 metres at the 1996 Atlanta Olympics under new coach Mao Dezhen. Ma soon came back with a new generation of runners by breaking several world records at China's Eighth National Games in 1997. With everyone predicting great success for Ma's runners at the 2000 Games, a drug scandal broke and the team failed to make the trip. However, Ma refused to stay down by leading his "third generation" to shine in 2001 at China's Ninth National Games. But drug scandals continued to haunt him as several of his top runners tested positive. None of his runners made China's team for the 2004 Athens Games where Xing Huina from Shandong Province won a surprising gold in the women's 10,000 metres. |
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