Doping case spoils Chinese glory in Asiad athletics

Doping case spoils Chinese glory in Asiad athletics

HIROSHIMA, Japan (Reuter): China netted six out of nine golds
at the Asian Games athletics meet yesterday but the sweet taste
of success was soured by a drugs scandal.

While Liu Xiaomei was crowned Asia's sprint queen and the
first male recruit to Ma's Family Army won gold, the Chinese team
was thrown into turmoil by the revelation that discus thrower Qu
Qiaping had failed a dope test.

In Qu's absence, the women's discus was won by another Chinese
woman, Min Chunfeng, with a throw of 62.52 meters.

"I cannot believe that she would take drugs. Before we came to
Japan, Qu had a bad back but I don't think she took anything for
it," said a shaken Min after her victory.

Min's winning throw was considerably below Qu's personal best
of 66.60m and there seems little doubt that Qu would have taken
first place in Hiroshima had she competed.

Away from the Chinese medal machine, tiny Qatar challenged to
sweep all golds in the men's sprint events, and it was a golden
day for the newcomer central Asian republics at the Hiroshima Big
Arch stadium.

Liu took the women's 100m title in a Games record time of
11.27, pipping Taiwan's Wang Huei-chen who was hunting for a
second gold after winning the 200m on Tuesday.

The battle between Liu and a jittery Wang, who caused a false
start, had been billed as close-fought, but in the end Liu said
she found the race easy.

"Before the race I thought it would be close, but in the end
it turned out to be not so tough," said an exultant Liu.

Wang said her tough Asian Games campaign, which has brought
Asian Games track success to Taiwan for the first time in 24
years, had exhausted her.

Sun Ripeng, one of the first men to come under the stern eye
of Chinese coach Ma Junren, made an astonishing sprint at the end
of the 3,000m steeplechase to humble Saudi pre-race favorite S.
Al-Mozazae.

He is the first male success story for Ma, who whipped up his
own storm of controversy this week over his disclosure that he
organized mass appendix removals for most of his squad.

He also came under fire on Thursday from the chief of China's
sports bureaucracy who said Ma was overtraining his athletes and
complaining too much about lack of cash.

But Ma, sitting in the sunny weather at the Big Arch, was not
in a complaining mood and said he was happy for Sun, proclaiming
that his time of 8:31.73 was only the start.

"With some more training I can take another 20 seconds off his
time," Ma said.

Qatar shines

Qatar's Osman Ahmed Suleiman, younger brother of reigning
Asian Games 1,500m champion Mohammed Suleiman, had a
disappointing run in the steeplechase, but the Gulf sheikhdom had
success again on the shorter track.

Qatar's 100m champion Talal Mansoor al-Rahim and compatriot
Ibrahim Ismail Muftah, winner of the 400m title, bid to add the
200m to Qatar's tally.

In heats for Saturday's final Muftah, who took the 400m gold
on Tuesday in 45.28 seconds, led the qualifiers in a time of
20.85.

Sprint champion Mansoor, winner of the most controversial race
to date at the Asian Games, won his heat in 21.04.

Ma Yuqin coasted to victory in the women's 400m final in a
Games record time of 51.17. Her team mate Zhang Hengyun took
silver after limping over the line with a pulled muscle.

Han Qing took a gold and a Games record time of 54.74 in the
women's 400m hurdles, leaving teammate Leng Xueyan trailing at
the finish.

In the men's discus, Zhang Cubbiao and Ma Wei had it all their
own way for Chinese gold and silver. Zhang's winning throw was
58.78.

Chinese favorite Liu Hao took the shot put title with a Games
record throw of 19.26m.

While China remained by far the dominant force in track and
field it was Kazakhstan which climbed into second place in the
day's hunt for medals, with a total of two golds, three silvers
and a bronze.

In the pole vault Igor Potapovich won gold with a Games record
leap of 5.65, while veteran team mate Grigory Egorov, the bronze
medalist at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, took silver.

Potapovich said the pole vault's postponement from its
original slot on Tuesday because of bad weather had given him the
jitters and he had decided not to try for the Asian mark of 5.90.

Central Asia won more gold in the high jump, Uzbekistan's
Svetlana Mounkova winning with a leap of 1.92m followed in silver
slot by Kazakhstan's Svetlana Zalevskaya.

In the triple jump, Oleg Sakirkin took gold for Kazakhstan
with a mark of 17.21, with team mate Sergey Arzamasov taking
bronze. Japan's Takashi Komatsu took the silver.