China's banned distance runner SunYingjie this weekend will receive a random test from the IAAF, world's athletics governing body, local media reported on Saturday.

Sun, bronze medal winner in the women's 5,000m at the 2003 world championships, will be tested for the first time after being suspended for two years for failing a doping test at the Chinese National Games last October, the Beijing-based daily The First said.

The 26-year-old, also the world half marathon champion in 2004, was one of the highest-profile Chinese athletes who have tested positive in the past decade.

She arrived here by train in early hours on Thursday with her parents after having stayed in Shenyang, her hometown in North China's Liaoning province, for nearly a month.

Sun has vowed to fight on and compete in the Beijing Olympic Games.

"Sun will be obliged to take four out-of-competition tests in two years, and she will face a life ban if she misses or fails anytest," said Zhao Jian, the director of the Anti-Doping Department of the Chinese Athletics Association.

That means if Sun failed this weekend's test, she would be banned for life.

Sun's ban came after she tested positive for androsterone after taking silver in the women's 10,000 meters at the National Games -- a day after she won the Beijing marathon and passed a doping test.

Yu Weili, deputy head coach of the Chinese national athletics team, said that the door of the national team is still open to her.

"If Sun can pass the four out-of-competition tests in two years, and keep in good condition, she will join us again.

"We consider she is an excellent runner, and it is uneasy for a country to have such a wonderful athlete. We punish her only because we want to save her."

Sun's coach Wang Dexian, banned for life for a second violation of the anti-doping code, did not come to Beijing with his student.

Wang said that Sun is not coached by him, saying, "I feel tired both physically and mentally after those troubles, and I want to relax this year before thinking about the future."

(Xinhua News Agency February 27, 2006)