Waikiki Mile adds
another Olympian

Wang Junxia, the
world record holder at 3,000
and 10,000 meters, signs

By Pat Bigold
Star-Bulletin

China's Wang Junxia, an Olympic champion and world-record holder at 3,000 and 10,000 meters, has reached agreement to run in the Nike P.L.A.Y. Waikiki Mile Dec. 13.

It will be the 23-year-old Wang's first official competition since the 1996 Olympics, where she took gold in the 5,000 meters and silver in the 10,000 meters.

Wang Junxia

"She's already announced she won't be competing in the (Chinese) National Championships in October," her Boston-based agent, Mark Whetmore said. "They tell me she's very happy to be running outside national competition.''

Wang will join an elite field that includes Mary Slaney, who will be in her first official competition since being cleared of doping charges. Slaney set 17 world records in her career.

Also in the field will be recent World Championship 1,500-meter silver medalist Regina Jacobs (U.S.) and 2,000-meter world record holder Sonia O'Sullivan of Ireland. O'Sullivan is the defending Waikiki Mile champion.

The women's mile, which follows the men's elite race, will be held on the eve of the Honolulu Marathon.

Wang passed up the World Championships in Athens last summer for health and other personal reasons, but her agent said she's training again.

"She started training again around Aug. 1, and now I'm told she's begun to intensify her training,'' Whetmore said.

Wang came to prominence in September 1993 when she stunned the world at the Chinese National Championships in Beijing, running under existing world records four times in one week. She set records of 8:12.19 and 8:06.11 in consecutive 3,000-meter heats and became the only woman ever to break 30 minutes at 10,000 meters with a 29:31.78 clocking.

Her feat is deemed even more incredible by the fact that she ran the second half of the race in 14 minutes, 26 seconds. The world record for 5,000 meters, held by Norway's Ingrid Kristiansen, is 14:37.33.

Wang also was one of two Chinese runners to eclipse Russian Tatyana Kazankina's 1,500-meter record (1984) of 3:52.47 that week when she finished in 3:51.92. Teammate Qu Yunxia came in just ahead of Wang in the current world record of 3.50.46.

Her success in 1993 as a newcomer to the international track scene -- and that of her teammates -- was viewed widely with suspicion of doping. Five other Chinese runners also ran under existing world records at the National Championships.

But drug tests taken on Wang and Qu by a lab accredited by the International Olympic Committee turned up negative within a few days of the nationals.

Wang's 10,000 and 3,000 world records are recognized by the International Amateur Athletic Federation.

Wang stopped racing after the Atlanta Games, reportedly suffering from neurasthania, which her coaches said was causing insomnia and making it painful for her to run.

Neurasthania is a general term for a condition with symptoms that range from fatigue to a virtual nervous breakdown. Wang's illness was blamed on an intense training regimen that caused many of her teammates to quit the sport.

She was the star of "Ma's Army," the Chinese women runners coached by the stern and elderly Ma Junren. Wang broke away from Ma at the beginning of 1995 and has been training under Mao Dezhen since. She is the only member of the record-breaking Chinese team of 1993 still in competition.

Wang out-sprinted Kenya's Pauline Konga with about a third of a mile to go to capture the 5,000-meter gold medal last year in 14:59.88.

NOTES: Irish Olympian Sinead Delahunty, who competed in the first two Waikiki Miles and is entered again this year, finished second Saturday in the Fifth Avenue Mile in 4:24.87.

Eric Kimaiyo of Kenya, the 1996 Honolulu Marathon champion, ran the world's second fastest time Sunday in the 24th Berlin Marathon. Kimaiyo clocked 2 hours, 7 minutes and 43 seconds. He was 2 seconds behind winner Elijah Lagat, also of Kenya.