Ace divers compete in World Cup

Filipino divers will see action in the Shanghai World Cup as part of their buildup for the 15th Asian Games from Dec. 1-15 in Doha, Qatar.

Bidding to come up with bigger splashes than in the Manila Southeast Asian Games are divers Sheila Mae Perez, Ceseil Domenios, Zardo Domenios, Niño Carog, Rexel Ryan Fabriga and Jaime Asok.

Perez won three gold medals, while Domenios had one in tandem with Perez in the 3-meter synchronized springboard.

Ceseil’s brother Zardo won a gold, along with Carog and Fabriga. Asok will be replacing Kevin Kong, who shared the gold with Fabriga in the synchronized 10-meter platform event.

The national team will be arriving Sept. 16 after a heavy five-day training regimen in Zigong, China under the tutelage of foreign coach Zhang Dehu.

Zhang trained Chinese Olympic champion Gao Min, now head coach of the Canadian diving team.

The quintet will then depart for Chang Shu in Shanghai for the World Cup competition.

"Almost sure na 1-2 na ang China sa World Cup," said former national coach Rommel Kong. "So ang bronze medal will be a tossup among Korea, Japan, Malaysia and the Philippines."

Working with the national team since 1997, Kong had turned over the coaching chores to Zhang and assistant coach Laurence Ifurung to accept an invitation by the Asian Swimming Federation to be a technical judge in the Asian Games.

Kristine Angeles Lozada, chairperson of the national diving committee, also received an invitation.

Swimming, meanwhile, has named SEA Games triple gold medalist Miguel Molina (200 individual medley, 200 breaststroke, 400 IM, 200 freestyle), Fil-Am Erica Totten (200 free, 200 fly, 100 fly), Fil-Am James Walsh (200 fly), Jackie Pangilinan (200 breast), Kendrick Uy (100 free, 50 free, and possibly the 200 free relay), and Ryan Arabejo (1,500 free, 400 free, 100 back).

"We are evaluating if our junior players would be competitive enough to fill up the four remaining slots in the team," said swimming coach Pinky Brosas.

The chances of the RP swimmers landing a medal in the Asiad will depend largely on how fast they could approximate the average time of the top 16 swimmers in the world.