China drops Ma's athletes from its Olympic team

China drops Ma's athletes from its Olympic team

BEIJING (AFP): Controversial Chinese track coach Ma Junren and six of the seven athletes he had trained for the Sydney Olympics were absent from a list released Wednesday of the team being sent to the Games.

"Ma's Family Army" appears to be one of the main victims of a Chinese decision to reduce its Olympic delegation by a reported 27 athletes, for reasons that included doping.

"Some of the athletes had problematic blood tests," the state- run Xinhua news agency said.

"For their own health's sake, and for the sake of the principle of fair competition, they will not be going to Sydney to compete."

Members of "Ma's Family Army" deleted from the list include Li Jingnan, Lan Lixin and Dai Yanyan, as well as Dong Yanmei, a 5,000m gold medal hopeful.

Only one member of the "Army," Li Ji, was still on the team, according to Xinhua.

Australian Olympic Committee president John Coates told reporters in Sydney on Wednesday that China had dumped 27 athletes scheduled to compete in rowing and other sports.

Prior to the revision, in late August, China said its final list included 311 athletes that would compete in the Sydney Games.

The revision announced on Wednesday means China will be almost certain to send fewer athletes to Sydney than to the 1996 Atlanta Olympics, when a team of 309 helped it to a fourth place in the medal standings, with 16 gold medals.

Sportasia.com, an AFP-affiliated website, reported Wednesday that Ma will miss the Olympics because four of his runners had excess levels of the banned drug EPO.

The report that Ma will not be allowed to go to Sydney came after widespread speculation in the Chinese media about the whereabouts of Ma and his team.

Ma and his athletes secretly left their training camp in the Chinese Himalayas on Sunday, days before they were originally scheduled to depart, local media said.

The Beijing Youth Daily reported training at the camp had been disturbed by as many as four drug tests since early August.

An informed source in Sydney told Sportasia.com that the setback for Ma would likely be the end of his career.

"Ma will now not be allowed to come to Sydney and his legend now looks to be shattered forever," the source said.

That is a legend which has been reinforced by Ma's unorthodox training methods, which include giving turtle bloods to his athletes.

The "Ma Family Army" stunned the athletics world with three world championship gold medals in 1993 and new world records in the 1,500 meters, 3,000m and 10,000m events.

But Ma's success irked China's regimented sporting bureaucracy which was envious of his achievements but eager to share in the spoils.

Not only did Ma get on the wrong side of officialdom, but he also became a target for the media, which poured scorn on everything from his "inhumane training methods" to his chain smoking and loud mouth.

Controversy increased in the late 1990s, when Ma refused to participate in qualifying events run by the Sports Commission and his runners were excluded from the 1997 World Championships and the 1998 Asian Games.

Seven rowers were also among those taken off the Olympic team, according to the list made public by Xinhua.

The International Rowing Federation's website said test results among some Chinese Olympic rowers were above the "IOC (International Olympic Committee) blood index" levels but not necessarily officially positive.

Liu Jianyong, secretary general of the Chinese Rowing Association, said the Chinese Olympic Committee had withdrawn the rowers to "protect their health and uphold the fairness of the Olympic Games," the website said.

The last-minute change in Olympic participants suggests China still has grave problems with drug abuse among its athletes.

This is despite a report by Xinhua citing Australia's Sports and Tourism Minister Jackie Kelly as saying China had assured the changes in the list were not drug-related.

While making public its list in August, China said Sydney would be not only a contest of athletic skills, but also a spiritual test, suggesting it would try to control the use of illegal drugs by its Olympic team.

The China Sports Daily on Wednesday said China was fully capable of performing tests according to Olympic rules for the performance-enhancing drug EPO.

The IOC has approved blood testing for the first time at Sydney to catch athletes using EPO.

Australian Sports Drug Agency officials have already started testing athletes as they arrive and hope to test 400 athletes for EPO before the Games start on Sept. 15.

Another 2,000 athletes will be tested in Australia for other performance-enhancing drugs.