China's maverick Ma back in limelight

Maverick track coach Ma Junren, whose runners were axed from China's Sydney Olympics team over doping concerns, was basking in the limelight again on Monday after two of his proteges won gold at the national games.

The legendary middle and long-distance squad from the northeastern province of Liaoning got victories from Gong Ke in the men's 10,000 metres and Lin Na in the women's 1,500 metres on Sunday.

Dark horse Lin charged past a pair of runners 30 metres from the tape and team mate Dong Yanmei, fourth in the 5,000 metres at the Edmonton world championships in August, settled for a bronze at the quadrennial games being held in the southeastern city of Guangzhou.

Their medals were latest proof that Ma, who served as deputy head of China's team in Edmonton and saw pupils Gong and Liu Min pull off surprise victories at the Beijing International Marathon in October, is back on track.

China's state media have said that Ma's squad is aiming for a record nine golds at the games.

But despite the victories, Ma has failed to avoid controversy.

Lin's upset in the 1,500 metres came a day after favourite Lan Lixin, another of Ma's disciples, was forced to pull out of the games because of an abnormal blood test result.

Ma attributed the test result to Lan's excessive intake of calcium pills after the World University Games in Beijing in August, the China Daily reported.

He has vigorously denied allegations his record-breaking runners, some of them peasants, were fuelled by banned drugs and famously ascribed their stunning times to high altitude training and traditional tonics of turtle's blood and caterpillar fungus.

But his gruelling, unorthodox training regime has provoked criticism in state media and led to public rifts with sports officials and athletes.

He was set to make a dramatic comeback at last year's Olympics, but on the eve of the games, Ma and six of seven members of his squad, along with 21 other athletes, were dropped from the Chinese squad because of doping concerns.

Some attributed the move to China's desire to appear as clean as possible in Sydney to boost the chances of Beijing hosting the 2008 Olympics.

China said it showed a sincerity in fighting drugs.

In July, Beijing won the right to host the 2008 Summer Games.

Doping scandals have dogged Chinese athletics since 1994, particularly in women's swimming and long-distance running.

But Chinese sports authorities have cracked down in recent years, in part to counter allegations that they were running a doping programme similar to that of the former East Germany.