Wang keeps them guessing

WANG JUNXIA, the athlete who set new limits of achievement for women's middle distance running in recent years, is among the Chinese team assembled here in Atlanta.

As yet, however, it is still not clear whether she will go to the line for the 10,000 or choose to oppose Sonia O'Sullivan over 5,000 metres.

Chinese commentators believe that Wang, whose world 10,000 metres record of 29 minutes 31.78 seconds puts her in a different league to all others in the event, will, almost certainly, channel her efforts into the longer distance.

Not until the 5,000 metres entries have been confirmed next week, however, can O'Sullivan, and all others with pretence to this title, be certain that they will not have to legislate for the running machine which induced astonishment and scepticism in equal measure at the World Championships in Stuttgart three years ago.

Since then, Wang's career has been upended in a bitter confrontation with coach Ma Junren, whose training schedules are reported to include running marathons and physical beatings for those who didn't conform.

Wang finally broke with Junren's spartan regime early last year and, under her new coach, Mao Dezhen, promptly slid down the ratings in a manner which merely reinforced suspicion about the legality of her Stuttgart performances.

None of her performances rated a place among the top six for the 10,000 metres in 1995 and more damningly still, she was beaten for the first time in two years in the 5,000 metres by teenager Jung Bo.

It all suggested that the woman who brought a whole new concept to the sport, was irreparably broken at the age of 23, only for the fisherman's daughter to bounce back with a renewed sense of purpose this season.

Competing in China's national track and field championships in Nanjing in May, she posted the fastest 10,000 metres time in two years, when winning in 31 minutes 01.76 seconds, twice lapping the field in the process.

Her 5,000 metres time of 14 minutes 51.87 seconds at the same meeting wasn't quite as imposing, but for an athlete who had merely dabbled with the event in the approach to the championships, it still represented excellent running.

Mystique, as much as brilliance, has characterised the remarkable evolution of women's athletics in China and there are now unconfirmed reports that her pre Olympic programme has been upset by injury.

We are unlikely to know the validity of those reports until she finally steps on to the track in Atlanta but, for the present, O'Sullivan, like so many other western athletes, can only sit and wonder.

China is sending just 33 track and field athletes just nine more than Ireland to the Games, but the list does not include Qu Yunxia who beat O'Sullivan in the 1,500 metres final in Stuttgart.

Qu, whose time of three minutes 50.48 seconds is still by far the best in the 1,500 metres, is one of the few athletes who have kept faith with Junren. But, in keeping with the pattern of the break up of the most feared squad in the sport she has not been remotely close to her best this year.

In all, women won 34 of China's 54 medals in Barcelona.