Poor Davao divers enrich sport with gold

HANOI, Vietnam (Via Globe Telecom)–Jaime Asok and Ryan Fabriga won the gold for a country with an 80 million population that does not have a single platform for synchronized diving.

The gold, the first for the Philippines, came in the 10m synchronized diving, and it took the two young Davaoenos from humble families guts and grace to win it finally for the Philippines over Indonesia and Thailand.

Asok, 19, and Fabriga, 18, combined for a runaway score of 301.26. The margin over the second-placed Indonesians (279.78) was so huge they could have dived with their feet first in the last phase and still keep the gold.

It was the second gold for Fabriga, who also won the 10m springboard diving a day earlier at the National Aquatic Center of the National Sports Complex here.

Husauhi Noor Huhammad Nasrullah won the silver for Indonesia while the Thai pair of Sareerapat Prim Samsee Suchart Pichi scored 272.25 to gain the bronze.

The duo waved the RP flag after the big win and their Thai friends bodily carried them on their shoulders and threw them to the pool in a grand celebration of the Philippine victory.

"I’m very happy for the boys," said PSC commissioner Leon Montemayor, who lives in the same district in Davao as the two boys. "This is the product of four-year training and the boys are shining now."

The dive to the top is a long, painful process, but it was a success story cut out for two boys who earned extra money at a Davao pier diving from atop a high bridge, survived poverty, and left their families to seek their fortune in the Big City.

A coast guard was the first to discover the two kids when he saw them diving from a high bridge in the pier in Davao when they were barely in their early teens.

Fabriga was a seaport worker and earned some on the side by diving for coins on the sea floor.

Even by the time they were in the training pool, they would send their allowances back to their homes to augment the family income.

He took Fabriga to Manila five years ago, and the climb of a champion diver to the top began when the Philippine Sports Commission gave them a chance to become members of the national pool.

Fabriga finished ninth in the China Open in 2002. He finished fourth in the prelims and sixth in the semis in the 10m platform in the US Speedo FINA Diving Grand Prix in Houston, Texas last year.

"Malakas noon ang Malaysia, pero noong tinalo nila ang mga ito sa Asian championships last year, they knew they could win the title here in Hanoi," said their coach Rommel Kong, former gymnast-turned diver.

Fabriga and Asok, like the four other Davaoenos in the national pool, were trained in Davao, where, unfortunately, the diving board was only for single divers.

"Hindi puwedeng pang synchronized diving, kung hindi magbubundulan ang dalawa," Kong said.

So they had to be content themselves with workouts in the dry tower, dry spring board and the trampoline.

They got a taste of actual diving on synchronized platform diving when they were sent on a 40-day training in China last September.

"Malaking naitulong sa kanila ang training sa China," said Kong. "Their training under foreign coaches bore fruit."

The training and the discipline they put into their craft certainly told in the final score where they led the opposition by a wide margin.

A great dive indeed–from top of the bridge to the top of the platform–to the top of Southeast Asia.