Two Chinese athletes who were formerly trained by disgraced Olympic coach Ma Junren have been banned from competing for two years after failing drugs tests, local media reported today.
Yin Lili, a medium- and long-distance runner from the northeastern province of Liaoning, and Song Liqing were deemed to have used performance-enhancing drugs.
The Chinese track and field association ruled that as well as being fined $1,200 each, they must also submit to four drug tests during their ban before they are allowed to return to the competitive arena.
The two athletes, who were previously coached by Ma, are currently under the guidance of Liang Chenggui.
Ma was taken off the national Olympic team just days before last year's Sydney Games over a drug scandal.
His runners were among 27 Chinese athletes dropped from the team because of what Chinese sports officials called "suspicious blood tests".
Reports said four of Ma's runners were found to have excessive levels of the banned endurance drug EPO or erythropoietin.
There had been constant murmerings about the systematic use of performance-enhancing drugs since Ma's stable of unknown runners smashed a string of world records in the 1990s.
Ma, however, has insisted their success was due to his training methods and his caterpillar fungus sports tonics.
AFP