Sunday, February 24, 2008 Davao's Perez off to Beijing By Marianne L. Saberon-Abalayan
SHEILA Mae Perez of Davao City became the 10th athlete from the Philippines who will hunt for the coveted gold medal in the 2008 Beijing Olympics in August.
She qualified to her second Olympics after she entered the women's three-meter springboard semi-finals of the "Good Luck Beijing 2008" 16th FINA Diving World Cup at The National Aquatics Center, also called the Water Cube, in Beijing, China.
The 22-year-old Perez of the Tibungco Relocation Site garnered a total of 271 points in Saturday's semis that was topped by Chinese Min Xia Wu who amassed 377.85 points.
China's Jing Jing Guo was second with 372 points while Australia's Sharleen Stratton came third with 336.90 followed by USA's Christina Loukas (330.75), Australia's Chantelle Newberry (314.85), Canada's Blythe Michaela Munro Hartley (314.10) and Ukraine's Olena Federova (305.95) who took the fourth to seventh spots, respectively.
Trailing behind were Mexico's Laura Sanchez (303.30), Sweden's Anna Lindberg (303), Hungary's Nora Barta (302.45), Canada's Jennifer Abel (300.65) and USA's Kelei Bryant (300.60).
Perez, who won the women's 3m springboard gold medal in the past 2005 Philippines SEA Games and 2007 Thailand SEA Games, proved she is stil the best among other Southeast Asia divers being the only one from the region who made it to the semis.
Her stiffest SEA Games rival Mun Yee Leong finished at No. 29 in the preliminary that drew a total of 52 competitors.
She made her Olympic debut in 2000 in Sydney, Australia. She also qualified to the 2004 Olympics in Athens but wasn't able to compete due to funding constraints.
The women's 3m springboard finals and the men's 10m preliminary where Dabawenyos Rexel Ryan Fabriga and Jaime Asok were set to compete were still ongoing as of yesterday presstime.
RP swimmers Miguel Molina, James Walsh, Ryan Arabejo, Daniel Coackley and Christel Simms with taekwondo jinds Tshomlee Go and Mary Antoinette Rivero, boxer Harry Taamor and archer Mark Javier recently won Olympic berths.
