Sun Yingjie

Sun Yingjie (zh-cp |c=孙英杰 |p=Sūn Yīngjié, born January 19, 1979 in Liaoning) is a famous Chinese female long-distance runner who competes from 5000 metres to marathon. She is the only Chinese female runner to run in a number of international marathons including the Boston, New York, Tokyo and London marathons. In 2003, she won a Bronze medal at the World Championships in Paris, France in the 10000 meter.

Sun Yingjie has an easily recognizable running style where her arms are almost completely extended and point straight down.

Career

From 1997 to 2000, Sun Yingjie focused on marathons. Her major marathon debut was in the Chinese National Games in October 1997 where she finished 10th (2:32:43). In 1998, She ran her first sub-2:30 race in National Championships in Tianjin (2:25:45). In 1999, she came in 12th (2:30:12) in Seville.

In 2001, after finishing third and second in 5000 m (15:02.70) and 10,000 m (31:49.47), respectively in Chinese National Games, she expanded into the shorter races. In the 2002 Asian Games in Busan, she achieved double wins in both 5000 m (14:40.41) and 10,000 m (30:28.26). Her 10,000m winning time ranked second in 2002 world list.

During the 2003 World Championships she achieved her greatest success when she won the bronze medal in 10,000 metres (30:07.20). The race was considered the fastest women's 10,000m race in history in that the top four finishers ran times that ranked 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th fastest of all time. Two continental records, five national records and the world junior record were also broken in this race. Sun led most of the race and was only overtaken by Ethiopian runners in the last lap. She also finished 9th in 5000 m in a respectable time of 14:57.01 during the same competition.

In October 2003, she became the first Chinese woman and fourth woman in the world to break the 2 hour 20 minute time in a women's marathon when she won her second Beijing Marathon at 2:19:39 which was also a former Asian best.

In 2004, Sun had a disappointing debut in Olympic Games in Athens where she finished 8th in 5000 m (15:07.23) and 6th in 10,000 m (30:54.37) due to the injuries during training in the winter.

After the Olympics, she bounced back in October to win the world title in half marathon with a time of 68:40. Although her times in 2005 Helsinki improved from the Olympics, she only placed 11th in 5000 m (14:51.19) and 7th in 10,000 m (30:33.53). Later in October, she won her 4th straight Beijing Marathon title with quality time of 2:21:01.

The after-competition drug test was negative. Two days later, she appeared in Nanjing and finished 2nd in 10,000 m behind Xing Huina in the Chinese National Games. Following the race, she tested positive in a drug test and was banned from competing for two years. [ [http://english.people.com.cn/200601/13/eng20060113_235126.html People's Daily Online - Sun suspended two years, coach in life ban ] ]

Major achievements

*2004 World Half Marathon Championships - gold medal
*2003 Asian Athletics Championships - gold medal (5,000 metres)
*2003 Asian Athletics Championships - gold medal (10,000 metres)
*2003 World Championships in Athletics - bronze medal (10,000 metres)
*2002 Asian Games - gold medal (5,000 metres)
*2002 Asian Games - gold medal (10,000 metres)

ee also

*List of sportspeople sanctioned for doping offences

References

External links

*iaaf name|id=131258|name=Sun Yingjie