Olympic 10,000m champion Xing Huina of China, who has been long out of public sight, showed up in the Beijing Olympic torch relay in Jinan, capital city of east China's Shandong province Wednesday morning.
She was a torchbearer this time, which she thought to be another way to participate in the Olympics, as she would not get a chance to defend her title at this summer's Games in Beijing.
Xing suffered a thigh injury that has kept her from training adequately and forced her out of China Open in May at the new National Stadium in Beijing, the last chance for her to qualify for the Aug. 8-24 Olympics.
"I would like to compete in Olympics at home, but I have to compromise to the injury," said Xing, still at the golden age of long-distance race.
Xing was training hard recently in coastal city Rongcheng in eastern part of Shandong, but health check showed she still suffered from injuries.
Xing would be one of the host nation's medal favorites in track and field. The only other is defending Olympic champion Liu Xiang in the men's 110 meter hurdles.
Since the Athens Games, she has not had much luck. In 2005, she was stripped of her gold medal in the 10th National Games of China for elbowing a fellow runner and did not compete in the 2006 Asian Games.
In Athens, Xing, who overtook Ethiopian Ejagayehu Dibaba to win the Olympic gold as a dark horse.
(Xinhua News Agency July 23, 2008)