Chinese Records Have Track-And-Field World Full Of Accusations

In less than a week, Chinese women runners have made a shambles of track and field's established standards by setting four world records.

Some would say they have also made a mockery of the sport.

"If they ratify these records, it will set women's middle-distance and distance running back 25 years," said Mary Slaney of Eugene, Ore., the greatest women's middle-distance runner in U.S. history. "It will ruin the sport."

The most recent record came yesterday, when Wang Junxia ran the 3,000 meters in 8 minutes, 6.11 seconds in the National Games at Beijing's Workers Stadium.

That was six seconds faster than the record of 8:12.19 Wang set in Sunday's preliminaries, when she took 10 seconds off the 9-year-old record of 8:22.62 set by Tatiana Kazankina of the Soviet Union.

Wednesday, Wang, 20, broke the 7-year-old world record in the 10,000 meters by 42 seconds. In Saturday's 1,500, both Wang, the runner-up, and Qu Yunxia, the winner, broke the oldest record in women's track and field, which had stood 13 years.

That meant Wang had run under the old world records four times in three events in six days. If legitimate, it would be the greatest concerted multiple-event performance in distance running history.

Qu, 20, was second in yesterday's 3,000, which was run in 82-degree temperatures, with a time of 8:12.17.

"I would love to jump up and down and say, `Fabulous!' but to smash those records by that much, it needs investigation," said PattiSue Plumer of Menlo Park, Calif., the top-ranked U.S. runner in the 3,000 meters from 1989 to 1992.

The International Amateur Athletic Federation, the governing body of world track and field, will review the performances when it receives record applications from the Chinese. Each application must include a doping test result from a urine sample provided by the athlete immediately after setting the record.

"I believe they are doing something chemically and that the results are not legal somehow," said Slaney, who once held U.S. records from 800 to 10,000 meters, set over a four-year period.

Countered runners agent Tom Sturak: "No one ever says these things about Kenya's men (who dominate men's distance running). I think the Chinese, like the Kenyans, are succeeding for cultural reasons. I think these times are legitimate."

For the five years between the 1988 Olympics and these Chinese National Games, only one world record was set in women's track and field events that have been on the Olympic program. Eight world records had been set in 1988, after which the battle against doping was intensified worldwide.

Wang (10,000) and Qu (3,000) were among three Chinese women runners to win world titles last month. Even though their times at the World Championships were considerably slower, they aroused suspicions because China had never won track world titles.

"If these suspicions aren't cleared up, it's a big problem for the IAAF and the International Olympic Committee," said Ollan Cassell, executive director of USA Track & Field.

The doubts have been created because China's sudden burst of brilliance defies all the sport's previously established norms of progression to better performances. It makes the rest of the world's best women runners noncompetitive against the Chinese.

Ma Zunren, who coaches all the top women runners in Liaoning Province (formerly Manchuria), has reacted angrily to charges of illegal methods. He said that the only "magic" involved was an herbal medicine made from worms but that the main factors were intense work and sophisticated training, including study of the locomotion of deer and ostriches.

"Even with drugs, those are fantastic times," Plumer said. "I could ingest all the anabolics in the world, and I don't think I would run that fast.

"It changes your whole mind-set. My goal had been to go to the next Olympics and finally win a medal. All of a sudden, my goal is just to make the Olympic team."