World Cup Heroine Sun Wen Tops Chinese Best 10 Athletes

Sun Wen, who captained Chinese women's soccer team to World Cup runner-up last year, topped the Chinese Best 10 Athletes of the Year 1999 at a poll voted by 20 media press on Tuesday.

Sun, top scorer in the World Cup last June-July in the United States, was also the winner of the FIFA Golden Ball award and has become the first women to be nominated for the the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Annual Awards.

Runner-up to Sun in the poll was woman chess player Xie Jun, who won the world championship title for the third time after beating Russia's Alisa Gallamova 8.5-6.5.

Table tennis player Liu Guoliang, men's singles and doubles champion at the 45th world championships in the Netherlands, was ranked third.

Others named were women world champion race walker Liu Hongyu, world women's singles and doubles world table tennis champion Wang Nan, world men's singles badminton champion Sun Jun, world speed skating champion Li Jiajun, world men's rings champion Dong Zhen, world women's swimming Chen Hua and world weightlifting champion Shi Zhiyong.

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