Divers delay trip to China
SPORTS officials in Beijing and Manila have delayed a scheduled trip of divers Sheila Mae Perez and Ryan Rexel Fabriga to China due to ongoing relief efforts after an earthquake struck the Sichuan province two weeks ago.
Perez and Fabriga, the country’s top Olympic bets in diving, were supposed to leave last Saturday for Chengdu, the capital of Sichuan.
But with the death toll reaching more than 60,000 and around 4.8 million people rendered homeless, officials of the Chinese Sports Ministry have asked the diving commission of the Philippine Amateur Swimming Association to put the trip on hold for a week.
Perez and Fabriga were supposed to train in Chengdu, but Chinese officials are now looking for other places where they could do the training.
“Next week na lang po kami aalis,” said Perez after meeting with Pasa diving chairman Baby Anne Dimanche.
The 22-year-old Perez talked about her ongoing preparations for the Olympiad following a presentation given to her by officials of software company Microsoft and computer outfit Lenovo.
Perez visited the Lenovo concept store at the SM Mall of Asia, where she mounted the official Olympic torch on a pedestal, autographed selected laptops and gave away signed posters to consumers, who wanted to meet and talk with the Filipino Olympian.
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Sunday, May 25th, 2008 at 11:09 pm under