BEIJING, Jan 5: China’s Olympic champion Xing Huina is to work with American coach James Li in a desperate bid to qualify for the defence of her 10,000 metres title at this year’s Beijing Games, local media reported on Friday.

The 23-year-old, who has struggled with poor form and injury since she won a surprise gold in Athens in 2004, is to move to the US to work with Chengdu-born Li, the coach of double world champion Bernard Lagat.

Xing lost her former coach Wang Dexian when he was banned for life after another of his charges, Sun Yingjie, failed a drugs test in 2005.

“There is not much time left,” she told the China Daily. “I hope I will get back to my best form under Li. Since I left Wang, I have been training alone. In the absence of a systematic training programme, it’s impossible to maintain top form.”

Li has worked with Lagat for the last 12 years and the Kenyan-born American paid credit to his coach’s tactical acumen after becoming the first man to win the 1,500 and 5,000 metres world titles at the same championships in Osaka last September.

Xing, unmistakeable for her shuffling gait, missed the worlds with a long-standing knee injury and is concentrating more on achieving an Olympic qualifying time than thoughts of repeating her Athens triumph.

“I dare not think about my Olympic chances,” Xing told the paper. “The most important thing is to start training properly as soon as possible and get in competitive shape for the upcoming qualifiers.”

Chinese women coached by the controversial Ma Junren set a string of world records in the early 1990s but China has faded as a power in long distance running since.

With Xing injured and Sun banned, they had no entries in the women’s 5,000 and 10,000 metres in Osaka.

Sun, world 10,000 metres bronze medallist in 2003, tested positive for the steroid androsterone in October 2005 and is expected to have her first competitive outing since completing her two-year ban at this weekend’s Xiamen marathon.—Reuters