1) her coach is very suspicious
read this article of 2008 from HK newspaper (I stick it below)
2) she follows the usual pattern of the chinese dopers of the past: rising up the ladder through multiple marathons in a year, but always in China.
Once the runner establish herself at chinese national level, he goes under the radar screen of WADA and national doping control, so she must "refrain" herself... but she reached where she wanted to...
just a reminder that ZHU Chunxiu followed the same pattern: she was even capable to run her 10000m PB (winning the National Games!!!) only 2 days after running the Beijing marathon (worthy to remind that the other runner who did the same exploit Sun Yingjie was later busted for doping...)
all said, I could bet my house on her being on "turtle soup" to win over the competition and get the place on the national squad. Then, maybe she had to go clean to train for Berlin, etc, but we well know that some stuff leaves long lasting benefits even after quitting the intake (eg: with testosterone, you go up in strenght and later is very easy to mantain the level)
from SCMP 1/8/2008
Drug-ban Sun sets sights on Beijing
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Martin Zhou in Beijing
China's former world championship bronze medallist Sun Yingjie, who is returning from a two-year doping ban, believes she may still be able to make the Beijing Olympics.
The 28-year-old, who tested positive for the banned steroid androsterone at the National Games in 2005, was 10th in the Xiamen marathon on Saturday, her first outing since returning from suspension.
'It was good training for me to prepare for Olympic qualification,' she told yesterday's China Youth Daily. 'I'm not sure [I'll be able to qualify] but I will do my best. I need to come back gradually. If I can return to my best, I think I can take part in the Olympics.
'I was really excited about taking part in this race because I had been away from a competitive atmosphere for such a long time.'
The four-times winner of the Beijing marathon is unlikely to qualify for the longest Olympic event but could still make the grade for the 10,000 or 5,000 metres. To make the cut for the games, Sun would have to outrun her peers in a domestic qualifying series over the next few months.
Despite China's avowed determination to stamp out doping, the return of Sun is good news for a country which has few world-class track athletes and was unable to enter a single woman in the 5,000m or 10,000m at last year's world championships.
Sun recorded two hours, 38 minutes and 21 seconds in the Xiamen race won by Zhang Yingying, who used to train with Sun under the same coach, Wang Dexian. Zhang finished 16 minutes ahead of Sun.
Wang was banned for life after Sun's scandal in 2005.
Sun won the last of her four consecutive Beijing marathon titles on October 16, 2005 and the next day finished second in the 10,000m at the National Games in Nanjing.
One of her fellow athletes subsequently admitted to spiking Sun's drink. Although a local court cleared her of doping, the Chinese Olympic Committee handed her a statutory two-year ban.
Zhou Chunxiu, the winner of last year's London marathon and China's top Olympic hopeful in the women's event, pulled out of the Xiamen race at the last minute, blaming injury.
Officials from the track and field administrative centre under the sports ministry confirmed that they had already drafted a list of 10 candidates for the final three-member squad for the women's marathon, an event that carries China's only realistic medal hope in athletics other than the 110m hurdles that features world record-holder Liu Xiang.
Zhou, along with Zhu Xiaoling, who finished fourth in Osaka last year, were obvious priorities, admitted Wang Dawei, the deputy director of the track and field administrative centre, with the rest of the pack vying for the third spot.
Curiously, the Xiamen race winner Zhang and Bai Xue, the winner of October's Beijing marathon - who was the runner-up in Xiamen - were not included on the short list.
'Though they have shown blistering form recently, they don't have the trust of sports officials in Beijing because of their link with Wang Dexian,' said a source.
Bai and Zhang train under Wang Deming, the younger brother of the disgraced Wang Dexian. That relationship has apparently caused concern among the officials wary of any possible doping fallout before and during the Olympics.