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China's sports authorities clear diving manager's name
(Xinhua)
Updated: 2008-10-28 14:32

Chinese sports authorities have cleared their Olympic diving team manager of embezzlement charges.

Zhou Jihong, China's first Olympic diving champion who has been the administrator of the star-studded Chinese team since 2000, was accused of embezzling several million yuan of prize money which was supposed to go to coaches.

Yu Fen, a Tsinghua University diving coach, tipped off the China State General Administration of Sport (GASC) on January 30, 2008 for Zhou's alleged embezzlement.

The GASC's discipline bureau said they found no wrongdoing in the Chinese team's distribution of prize money.

Yu, a vocal critic of Zhou's management, has churned out a dozen of Olympic and world champions, including Fu Mingxia and Guo Jingjing, first as a Chinese national team coach and then as head coach of the prestigious Tsinghua University.

"My students have won numerous gold and silver medals in international and domestic competitions in the past decade," Yu told Xi'an Evening News. "I was supposed to collect several million yuan from the Chinese team as bonuses for my efforts. As a matter of fact, I have only got 157,000 yuan (US$23,000  )."