The athletes who were preparing for this summer's Olympic Games in Sichuan when the massive earthquake hit, have been evacuated from the southwestern Chinese province, a sports official said on Monday.

Sichuan sports chief Zhu Ling told Xinhua that 15 out of China's 34 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions have received Sichuan athletes who are preparing for the 2009 National Games or striving for a berth in the Beijing Olympics.

The Sichuan Provincial Sports Institute, based in the provincial capital of Chengdu, which used to host two-thirds of the province's top athletes, was closed on Sunday. So was the Xipu Athletics Training Ground.

The devastating tremor measuring 8.0 on the Richter scale struck Sichuan on May 12 and it claimed 62,664 lives and left 358,816 injured and 23,775 missing as of Sunday.

No provincial-level athlete was injured or killed in China's most deadly earthquake in decades although some lost their relatives and homes in the quake, said Zhu Ling.

Zhu said athletes could hardly concentrate in training since the earthquake, worried about aftershocks.

Two person died and more than 480 were injured when a 6.4-magnitude aftershock jolted Qingchuan County on Sunday afternoon.

The strongest aftershock since the 8.0-magnitude Wenchuan County quake also destroyed or severely damaged about 270,000 houses, and like the original quake, was felt across China.

Sichuan's leading track and field athletes, including Asian Games women's 100m hurdles champion Liu Jing and the country's leading men's triple jumper Gu Junjie, are competing in the "Good Luck Beijing" Olympic athletics test event which opened last Thursday. They will stay in Beijing for training after the event, according to Zhu.

Sichuan's gymnasts and Wushu players have settled down in Guangxi while Hubei hosts Sichuan's badminton team.

Shandong has received Sichuan's wrestling, swimming, diving and women's soccer teams while Yunnan takes in the volleyball teams, Shanghai the synchronized team, Guizhou the table tennis teams.

(Xinhua News Agency May 26, 2008)