The news that will strike fear into the heart of every female distance runner during the build-up to the Sydney Olympics is that "Ma's Family Army" are on the march again.

Ma Junren, the Chinese coach whose concoctions of herbal remedies and turtle blood helped his runners to stun the athletics world in the mid-1990s with a series of record-breaking performances has assembled a new group of athletes ready to shine in Sydney.

Ma's women runners broke the 1,500, 3,000 and 10,000 metres world records in 1993 before the outspoken coach fell out with team members over money. Wang Junxia, the world record holder for the 3,000 and 10,000 metres and the runner who led the mutiny, re-emerged briefly under a different coach when she won the 1996 Olympic 5,000 metres, but is now retired.

Ma himself staged a sensational comeback in China's national games in Shanghai in 1997 when his new protegee, Jiang Bo, smashed the women's 5,000 metres world record by more than eight seconds.

He has denied allegations of drug use and attributed his run of success to high-altitude training, daily marathons and restorative potions of turtle blood, fungus and ginseng tea.

Ma will make his latest comeback on Sunday when his runners form China's team for an international road relay in Beijing.

Shang Xiutang, a senior government athletics official, inspected Ma's training camp in the north-eastern province of Liaoning last week. "It could be seen that they have prepared conscientiously for the Olympics," he said. "Ma's team is, as in the past, top notch."