Beijing: Controversial Chinese athletics coach Ma Junren has retired from the sport, the China Daily reported on Saturday.

Ma told the paper that he was stepping down from his role as deputy head of the Liaoning provincial sports bureau.

?I will not go back to the track. It is my final goodbye to the sport,? he said.

?Ma?s Army?, an elite team of female middle and long-distance runners put together by the coach, shattered a string of world records in the 1990s.

Wang Junxia, his star pupil and herself a multiple world record-holder, severed her ties with him before the Atlanta Olympics in 1996 before winning the 5,000 metres gold at the Games, with silver in the 10,000.

But Ma was dogged by drug suspicions while his individual approach aroused hostility with the heads of Chinese athletics.

(Reuters)