Liu Xiang, the world record holder in the 110-meter hurdles, yesterday chipped in 3 million yuan (US$429,000) more for earthquake victims, his second donation in a week.

Olympic men's hurdles champion Liu Xiang (L) and his coach Sun Haiping attend a donation ceremony attended by all the Chinese national team athletes who are training in Beijing for the Beijing Olympic Games on May 15. Liu and his coach Sun donated 500,000 Yuan (about 71,500 U.S. dollars) to help the relief work of the quake-hit region in Sichuan Province in southwest China.

Liu's father Liu Xuegen handed a check signed by his only son to the Red Cross in Shanghai yesterday afternoon after lining up in a queue of donors for a long time.

Liu Xiang is one of the most popular athletes in the country and is now busy training in Beijing for the Olympics to defend his gold medal won at the 2004 Games in Athens, Greece.

On May 14, Liu Xiang and his coach Sun Haiping donated a combined 500,000 yuan at a ceremony attended by all Chinese national team athletes training in Beijing.

China's State General Administration of Sport called on athletes and coaches to donate money to help earthquake victims in Sichuan Province. The administration and the Chinese Olympic Committee had donated 5 million yuan.

Houston Rockets star Yao Ming has already donated 2 million yuan and Milwaukee Bucks forward Yi Jianlian gave 100,000 yuan.

Ding Junhui, a snooker player, donated the 150,000 yuan he earned from the Huangshan Cup All-star Game held last week.

(Shanghai Daily May 21,2 008)