Vicente Fox, who leaves office as Mexico's president on Thursday, opened a 100-million-dollar athletics-training center in Mexico City on Monday.

The 11.6-hectare center will serve 3,000 athletes a year, beginning in the second week of January, and has facilities for 23 disciplines, as well as three schools - primary, secondary and pre- university - which have a total capacity of 650.

The schools are there so that talented young athletes are not forced to choose between school and their discipline.

It also has a pool large enough for water polo and deep enough for diving; and specialized facilities for the following sports: athletics, volleyball, basketball, badminton, archery, table tennis, boxing, taekwondo, wrestling and gymnastics.

The builders have not yet finished the dormitories; and a shooting range is planned for the future.

The center will compete with the 40-year old center administered by the Mexican Olympic Committee, a private company supported by the government.

Nelso Vargas, director of the Nation Commission for Physical Culture and Sports, told media that in 2000, when Fox became president, there were only three such centers in Mexico and now there are 12.

Source: Xinhua