Tuesday, May 08, 2007 Davao divers to undergo rigid training in China By Marianne L. Saberon-Abalayan
DESPITE the reported scrapping of the diving event in the 24th Southeast (SEA) Games, the Davao City divers led by 2005 triple gold medallist Sheila Mae Perez are still right on track of their training schedule for the Thailand Games on December 6 to 16.
Perez, who visited her family at the Tibungco Relocation Site recently, resumed her training at the sprawling world-class Trace Aquatics Center in Los Baños, Laguna where she and the rest of the RP diving team are housed as scholars.
"Bag-o lang ko nibalik ug training kay niuli ko ug Davao para sunduon akong manghud nga si Dodong. Balak nako siya ipatrain pud ug diving (I just returned from Davao to fetch my brother Dodong. I intend to let him get into diving too)," Perez said in a phone interview with Sun.Star Davao Monday.
She said her younger sister, Blissa, had already been training in the diving developmental pool.
When asked to comment about the scrapping of diving in the Thailand SEA Games, Perez was quick to reply: "Wala man gyud mi kabalo unsa gyud ang status pero padayon man among training. Wala pa man mi gi-ingnan nga dili nami madayon sa Thailand. Gani, naka-set man mi mangadto ug China para sa among training karong bulana (We really don't know our status but we continue to train. We haven't yet been told that we won't be going to Thailand. We're even set to go to China for training this month)."
The China training set to start late this month was also mentioned by Philippine Sports Commission (PSC) chairman William "Butch" Ramirez in a recent interview.
Thai sports officials reportedly scrapped diving and other events like women's boxing, wushu, traditional boat race and wrestling for this year's meet.
"We are really saddened by this development if indeed diving and a few other sports will not be included in the Thailand SEA Games. It will really hurt our campaign as Perez had won three of the total five golds we won in diving when we hosted the Games in 2005," Ramirez said in a recent interview.
"Ang akong pagkabalo magtanggal lang ug ubang events sa diving ang Thailand sports officials pero dili ko sigurado kung unsa ba gyud, kung mawala nagyud ang diving (What I know is that Thai sports officials will just reduce the number of diving events and not really scrap the sport altogether)," Perez said.
She also hinted she could no longer answer more questions coming from this reporter, saying "Gibawalan na biya mi magpa-interview sa amo chairman sa diving basin masamok pa daw. Hapit naman gud daw ang eleksyon (We were prohibited by our diving chairman to grant any interview since it might trigger trouble as the elections are coming)."
Perez won the golds in women's three-meter springboard and one-meter springboard individual events of the 2005 SEA Games. Her third gold was in the synchronized three-meter springboard with partner Ceseil Domenios.
Domenios, however, is no longer visible during training although her brother Zardo Domenios is still very much active.
The RP diving team is also composed of Dabwenyos Rexel Ryan Fabriga, 2005 gold and silver medalist, Niño Carog and Jaime Asok with Cebuano Kevin Kong.
