Monday, May 21, 2007 Davao divers named Olympic hopefuls
SHIELA Mae Perez and four other divers from Davao City have been named as part of a big group of Filipino athletes who will undergo specialized training in the hope earning slots to the Beijing Games next year.
Perez, who won three gold medals in the 2005 Southeast Asian Games, is an Olympian having competed in the 2000 Sydney Olympics.
But the Davao girl wonder certainly hopes to make it back to the greatest sporting show on earth, which is held every four years.
Perez failed to make to the 2004 Athens Games after the country failed to send the divers to qualifying tournaments.
She and fellow Davao divers Niño Carog, Zardo Domenios, Rexel Ryan Fabriga and Jaime Asok, and Dhayna Lemay, Nicole Lemay and Kevin Kong are included in the list of 50 Filipino athletes who will be sent abroad to undergo training at the end of the month.
Domenios, like Perez, also saw action in the Sydney Games.
The other athletes will come from weightlifting, gymnastics, wushu, swimming, tennis, beach volleyball, shooting, rowing, taekwondo and archery.
Almost half of the 50 athletes are bound for China on May 28, while others are either in the United States training or still at home waiting for foreign coaches.
