Report says China keeps marathon runners guessing

BEIJING, Jan 10, 2008 (AFP) - China has delayed naming its women's marathon team for the Beijing Olympics to keep overseas rivals guessing and its own runners on their toes, according to a report Thursday.

The new strategy was to create a "sense of crisis" to keep competitors "at the top of their game" and foreigners in the dark, Wang Dawei, the deputy head of China's track and field administration, told the China Daily.

China's athletics chiefs initially said the three-person team would be announced after last week's final trial event, the Xiamen marathon.

Two outstanding performers last year were already thought to have been selected: Zhou Chunxiu, who won the London Marathon in 2007, and Zhu Xiaolin, fourth at the world athletics championship.

The third place on the team roster was expected to go to the Xiamen winner as long as she ran under two hours 24 minutes, according to the newspaper.

The race was won by 18-year-old rising star Zhang Yining -- who finished in 2:22:38.

But the team announcement never came and officials said no-one was assured of a spot.

"We delayed the release of the three person roster as we want to crank up the pressure on all runners," the China Daily quoted Wang as saying.

"Also I don't want our overseas rivals to get to know our Olympic atheltes too early so I don't think authorities will announce it too soon."

China's women distance runners are thought to hold the best hope for track and field gold apart from world record 110m hurdler Liu Xiang, the reigning men's Olympic and world champion.

Wang said competition to make the three-person roster was stiff. But there is unlikely to be room for Sun Yingjie, the three-time Beijing marathon winner who is battling back after completing a two year doping ban.