Sonia seeks Chinese favour

TEN years ago, Chinese trio Qu Yunxia, Zhang Linli and Zhang Lirong deprived Sonia O’Sullivan of a medal in the final of the 3,000m at the world championships in Stuttgart.

That particular race, and the Chinese dominance of women's middle and long distance events during that era, is now part of track notoriety.

Qu Yunxia turned in a final kilometre of 2:39.26 to win the gold medal but even more startling was the 57.48 second final lap of Liu Dong to win the women's 1,500m race in which O'Sullivan bounced back to take the silver medal.