Chinese track coach withdraws team from London marathon
Chinese track coach withdraws team from London marathon
BEIJIN (UPI): Leading Chinese track coach Ma Junren has announced that his star women's team will not compete in the London marathon next month, although race officials remain confident the runners will make it to the start line.
"Ma Family Army" members Wang Junxia and Qu Yunxia had registered to race in the April 10 Jakarta 10-K Road Race and the April 17 London marathon, where the current women's world record of 2 hours 21 minutes 06 seconds was set by Ingrid Kristiansen of Norway nine years ago.
"The Ma Family has withdrawn from the two competitions because the strength of the athletes has not been achieved and there are some specific issues unsolved," the official Beijing Evening News said Wednesday.
Wang holds two world records, in the 10,000 meters and 3,000 meters, while Qu grabbed the world record in the 1,500 meters last year.
But David Bedford, the international race director of the London marathon, denied Thursday that the Chinese had pulled out of the event.
"We have been in regular contact with the Chinese federation and the Chinese Embassy in London over the last weeks and as far as we are concerned, they will take part in the race," he said.
In another development, Ma has been "recalled from his highland camp in south-western China to train the out-of-shape Liaoning soccer team," the official Xinhua news agency said.
Liaoning, the provincial national champion for the past 10 years, begins the Chinese division one season next month with seven of its starting lineup unable to run 3,000 meters in under 12 minutes.
"We are really worried - the league is coming and those who cannot go through the make-up fitness tests will not play," said the vice-chairman of the Liaoning province sports commission.
Ma is expected to force the unfit players to submit to a rigorous regimen of running and, perhaps, "Life Nuclear Energy," a potent mix of caterpillars and fungus that he says is the secret of his runners' successes.
"We have no other alternative than asking for Ma's help," the sports commissioner told Xinhua.