Sudden death of college student raises attention

SHANGHAI - The sudden death of a 21-year-old Chinese college student on Monday during a basketball course raised people's attention to the health of students in China.

The second-year student, whose surname is Tang, studied at Shanghai Shanda institute. After warming up for a basketball course at 9:30am, Tang suddenly fell down and fainted. He was rushed to hospital but died later.

Wu Qiuyun, deputy director of the institute president's office, told reporters on Tuesday that so far the hospital had not told the cause of the death.

"Tang did not have any record of heart problem," Wu said.

"Tang is a good student. His physiques is almost the same as other students, not very good, not very bad," Wu said.

Tang's classmates said that during the course, no one tackled or even touched Tang, and everybody warmed up. They don't know why the tragedy happened.

It was the third sudden death of Chinese student in 22 days. In the Guangzhou Marathon on November 18, a third-year college student, whose surname is Chen, died after final sprint. Two weeks ago, a male student from Shanghai Donghua University died at the finish line of a 1,000m test race.

A student from Shanghai Shanda Institute, whose surname is Xiao, told reporters that they have only one PE class per week, only 90 minutes.

"That's not enough," Xiao noted.

According to the statistics jointly made by China's Education Ministry and General Adminstration of Sports last September, the physiques of Chinese college students had been worsening in 25 years, the function of heart and lungs in particular. As compared to those in the year 1985, the average mark of the 800m race for female students dropped 0.3 percent, and that of the 1,000m run for male students downed 10.9 percent.

Liu Bo, the director of the sports department of Tsinghua University, said that many students lacked physical exercises when they studied in primary and middle schools, so it is impossible for them to become stronger rapidly in universities.

Professor Sun Qilin from Education Ministry's PE education commission said," On one hand, one or two accidents should not make us give up our efforts to strengthen PE education for students. On the other hand, we must study the education system seriously, improve our testing system and PE education for students, in a bid to attract more students to sporting fields.

Some experts also advised to provide insurance to students.