BY Inquirer.net.

Sheila Mae Perez, the Philippines' diving treasure, ruled the women's 3-meter springboard at the 24th Southeast Asian Games here with ease.

Perez occupied top spot right after her first dive, staying there until the end to score a total of 316.60 points and win her fourth SEAG gold medal.

The 20-year-old from Davao, who has been handled by a Chinese coach since October, dove virtually unchallenged all day, repeating as champion by close to 10 points over Mun Yee Leong of Malaysia, the Asian Games bronze medalist who could only total 306.90.

"She is very confident coming over here," swimming association president Mark Joseph said after the first day of competition at His Majesty the King's 80th Birth Anniversary complex here.

Thanh Tra Hoang was third with a 300.80, while Dhayna Lemay, the second Filipina in the nine-strong field, was eighth with 223.65 points.

Perez, who is seeking a possible stint in next year's Beijing Olympics, will also gun for golden repeats in the 1m springboard and women's 3m synchronized springboard events in the last two days of the diving competition.

Ceseil Domenios teamed up with Perez for the synchronized gold in the 2005 Games.

Actually, Perez will leave for Xian, China, after the Games to train for her stint in a diving Grand Prix in Beijing, which will be the final qualifier for the Summer Games.

Perez was the only one in Wednesday's field to get a score of as high as 8.5 in almost all of her dives.

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