MANILA, 21 September 2003 — Chinese distance runner Sun Yingjie destroyed the field to win the women’s 10,000 meters event at the Asian athletics championships yesterday, and warned her good friend and compatriot Wang Junxia’s world record will fall next.
Fresh from winning a bronze medal at the world championships in Paris last month, the 24 year-old Beijing native blew the race apart at the 2,000m mark, lapping the eventual second-place finisher with 2,800m to go en route to a time of 32min 37.04sec.
“My time here was not that good because of the poor quality of the opposition,” said the petite runner.
Her personal best time of 30:07 is some way off Wang’s world record of 29:31.78, set in Beijing in 1993.
But Sun, who said she did not have a secret turtle soup diet that Wang controversially claimed helped her set the record, warned that she has yet to reach her best form.
“I want to break it,” Sun said of the record. “Maybe in a year’s time.”
Sun will go for her second gold in the 5,000m final tomorrow. Her win capped a four-gold haul for China on the first day of competition here.
German Pole Vaulter
Apologizes for Mooning
German pole vaulter Tim Lobinger said in Monte Carlo yesterday that he has apologized to the ruling body IAAF for the mooning incident after winning at last weekend’s World Athletics Final.
“I sent a fax to (IAAF secretary general) Istvan Gyulai on Thursday. I don’t believe the affair is over now, but I will now wait for a reaction from the IAAF,” Lobinger said.
Lobinger was fined $5,000 by the IAAF for “unbecoming behavior” after pulling down his pants in front of 10,000 spectators.
