Special report: Strong Earthquake Jolts SW China

    By Shi Chundong and Cao Jianjie

    CHENGDU, Southwest China, May 21 (Xinhua) -- Sports infrastructure in the earthquake-stricken Sichuan province has been seriously damaged, a sports official said here on Wednesday.

    A newly-built gymnasium, a swimming pool and a stadium in the Aba Normal Institute in Wenchuan, the epicenter of China's most deadly quake in decades, were all wiped out and a 3,000-seat gymnasium in Jiangyou city, which was jolted by a 6.0-magnitude aftershock on Sunday, had been devastated by the May 12 quake.

    The Sichuan Sports Bureau closed all the sports venues and facilities on the day of the earthquake, said Zhu.

    Although none of Sichuan-based athletes was killed or injured in the massive earthquake, some athletes lost their beloved ones and saw their homes ruined in the disaster, according to Zhu.

    Zhang Rongwei, principal of the Sichuan Sports Institute, told Xinhua Wednesday morning that the Zhang Shan Training Center, which is named after the Sichuan-born Olympic shooting champion, and the Land Sports Training School in the northern suburb of Chengdu, have been declared "hazardous buildings".

    Also on the list of "hazardous buildings" are two dormitory buildings of the Sichuan Sports Institute.

    Twenty Olympics-bound athletes, including Asian Games hurdles champion Liu Jing, were training in Sichuan when the disaster hit the province historically named as "A Land of Abundance". "They are all safe," said Director Zhu.

    Sichuan has churned out a dozen Olympic champions including Chen Longcan (table tennis), Gao Min (diving), Zhang Shan (shooting) and Du Li (shooting) and Tang Lin (judo).

    When the earthquake rocked Sichuan, Asian Football Confederation president Hohamed Bin Hammam and Chinese soccer boss Xie Yalong were attending a soccer forum in a Chengdu hotel.

    Hamman and Xie looked composed when reporters fled. They were among the last group of the forum attendees evacuated to the Chengdu Sports Center.

    The death toll from the devastating earthquake was 40,075 nationwide as of 6 p.m. on Tuesday, according to the Information Office of the State Council. Another 247,645 people were injured and 32,361 people were missing as of Tuesday at noon.