Olympic champion Xing stripped of gold at national games

Xing Huina (L) and Liu Qing are seen in the final meters.

Chinese Olympic champion Xing Huina was Wednesdaystripped ofher gold in the women's 1,500m final in the China National Games for fouling second-placed Liu Qing.

Xing had elbowed Liu in the final meters andsprintedto take first spot, the National Games Arbitration Panel announced late Wednesday.

She was stripped of her medal and Liu was announced as the winner.

Xing had clocked four minutes and 3.97 seconds. Liu finished in 4:04.00 followed by Huang Jing in 4:10.13.

Even Xing's time wasway offthe world record of 3:50.46 set by compatriot Qu Yunxia at the 1993 China National Games, and nearly seven seconds off the world best in the event so far this year.

Xing had earlier matched her 10,000m Athens gold with victory in the same event.

On Monday, she beat Sun Yingjie and Zhou Chunxiu also by outsprinting them down thehome stretch. Sun and Zhou had placed first and second respectively in the marathon a day earlier.

On Thursday, China's three strongest middle and long distance women runners will meet up again in the preliminary rounds of the 5,000m. The final is scheduled for Saturday.

"Tomorrow I'll run in the 5,000m preliminary, so it is too early to think about another gold medal," Xing had said before being stripped of her gold.

"I just want to race one race at a time and then we will see what happens afterward."

(Agencies)

strip of: （剝奪）

sprint: run or move at top speed for a brief period （沖刺）

way off: （有很大距離）

home stretch: （終點直道）

preliminary: an event that precedes the main event of a particular program （預(yù)賽）