Dominican Republic in the London Olympics

[Dolores1]

Yamilet Pena in artistic gymnastics

For a Dominican to be competing in artistic gymnastics is unheard of as there is no tradition in gymnastics in the Dominican Republic and 19-year old Yamilet Pena is fully a Dominican-trained product. Once she qualified on 12 January 2012 at the North Greenwich Arena where she will again compete in the Olympics, she was adopted by French businesspeople in the Dominican Republic and sent to train in France prior to the Olympics. Previously, she did not receive support from the Dominican Olympic Committee because she had failed to win a medal in the Central American or Pan American championships.
The training in France paid off. Weeks before the Olympics, she won the gold medal in the senior women’s vault at the 2012 Junior and Senior Pan American Championships in Medellin, Colombia (21-24 June) and took third at the 2012 World Cup.
Expect to see Pena attempt one of the most difficult vaults in artistic gymnastics, the handspring double front vault known as the “Prudnova” that calls for flipping forward two-and-a-half times off the vaulting table. Her try was successful when qualifying at the 2011 World Gymnastics Championship in Tokyo, becoming only the second woman, and the first since 1999, to accomplish this is an international competition.
The qualifying rounds in artistic gymnastics are held at the North Greenwich Arena staring 28 July. The finals in women’s vault, her strongest event, are scheduled for 5 August.

 

[Dolores1]

Women’s volleyball
This is the second time the Dominican women’s volleyball team plays in the Olympics. In the 2004 Olympics, the team defeated Team USA.
Women players are Candida Estefany Arias, Milagros Cabral, Brenda Castillo, Bethania de la Cruz, Karla Echenique, Lisvel Mejia, Gina Mambru, Niverka Marte, Sidarka Nunez, Priscila Rivera, Cindy Rondon, Annerys Vargas.
Dominican Republic’s women’s volleyball team is in Group A in the Olympics. It will compete in a round against Algeria, Great Britain, Italy, Japan and Russia at the Earls Court historic venue starting 28 July.
The games are: DR vs. Italy (28 July), vs. Rusia (30 July), Japan (1 August), Great Britain (3 August), Argelia (5 August).

 

[Dolores1]

This is the third time Luis Lin Ju, 31 years, will represent the DR in table tennis in an Olympics Games. He first competed for the Dominican Republic in Athens, and then in Beijing 2008. He is a gold medallist in the Pan Am Games and in Rio de Janeiro 2007, silver at the Central American Games in 2010 and silver at the Guadalajara Pan Am Games in 2011.

 

[Dolores1]

Shooting: Sergio Pinero (trap)
Sergio Pinero is married to Maria Quintanal, a silver medalist for Spain in the Athens Olympics in 2004. Pinero had already competed for Spain in the Sydney Olympics in 2000. The Spanish couple was naturalized as Dominican citizens in 2005 and now are dual nationals but chose the Dominican sports nationality. Pinero lives and trains in Spain.

He competes on 5 August.

http://www.london2012.com/shooting/event/men-trap/index.html

 

[Dolores1]

Track and Field

Luguelin Santos (400m) is the man to watch for a medal in the London Olympics given his outstanding performances leading up to the event. He will compete in heats as of 4 August, with finals on Monday, 6 August.
Carlos Jorge competes in (200m) competes on 7 August.

Winder Cuevas and first Dominican Olympic gold medal winner, Felix Sanchez will compete in 400m hurdles on 3-4 August. This is Felix Sanchez's fourth Olympics. His first was in Sydney 2000, then Athens 2004, where he won the Dominican Republic's first gold medal ever, and then in Beijing 2008.
The 4 x 400 relay will be run by foursome made up of Felix Sanchez, Luguelin Santos, Gustavo Cuesta, Arismendy Peguero, John Soriano and Joel Mejia (4 x 400 m relay) on 9 August with finals on 10 August.

Women's running:
Ildette Lavonne (100 m hurdles) on 6 August.
Marielis Sanchez (200 m) on 6 August.
Raysa Sanchez (400 m) on 3 August.

 

[Dolores1]

Yuli Gabriel Mercedes is the Dominican flag-bearer at the London Olympics. He competed in the Beijing Olympics and lost the gold to the Mexican athlete in a controversial judge decision. In taekwondo he competes in 58 kg division. ExCel venue hosts the taekwondo competitions at the London Olympics. Mercedes will compete as of 9:15am on 8 August.

 

[Dolores1]

Dominican Republic medals in Olympics Games

The Dominican Republic has won two gold medals in the Olympics.
These were Felix Sanchez in the 400 meters hurdle in the Athens Olympics in 2004 and a second, by Manuel Felix Diaz in the lightweight division (64 kgs) in the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
For Felix Sanchez, this will be his third Olympics competition in the 400 hurdles. He is also on the 4 x 400 relay team of the Dominican Republic.
Gabriel Mercedes, a silver medalist in the Beijing Olympics, will be in London competing again for the gold. He is also the flag-bearer for the Dominican Republic.
The first Dominican medal in an Olympics games was won by late boxer Pedro Nolasco, a bronze in Los Angeles in 1984 in the 51-54 kgs division (see in the photo).

 

[Dolores1]

To follow up on this thread, here are the results of the first days at the Olympics for the Dominican delegation:


Yamilet Pena shines in the London 2012 Olympics
The going was tough for Dominican athletes in the start of the London Olympic Games.
Best performing was underdog 20-year old Yamilet Pena Abreu who landed a fourth place qualification in the vault competition of artistic gymnastics, holding her own for a chance at a medal on 5 August. Yamilet Pena qualified for the London Olympics in the same venue where she is now competing.
She performed to the music of Juan Luis Guerra. Her scores were: 14.933, 14.466 for final score of 14.699. She is ranked 7th in the world. See more details on her participation at http://www.dr1.com/forums/dominican...s-14-699-first-olympics-qualifying-round.html
F?d?ration Internationale de Gymnastique : WAG World Ranking 2012 - CIII Individuals
The Dominican women volleyball team was able to clinch one set from Italy, while losing 3-1 in their debut in the London Olympics (25-17, 23-25, 25-19, 25-15).
In swimming, Nicholas Schwab was 37th of 41 competitors in the 200 m freestyle with a time of 1:53.41.
Also representing the Dominican Republic, 15-year old Dorian McMenemy was 41st of 42 countries clocking in at 1:05.78 in the 100 butterfly.
Maria Garcia lost to Marie Muller of Luxembourg, in the 52 kg, judo, failing to advance.
Yuderqui Contreras in 53 kg did not finish (DNF) her weightlifting event. She failed in three attempts to lift 94 kgs, which was below her usual weight lifting level.
In table tennis, Luis Lu Lin defeated Song Nam Kim 4-3 in a first match, but then fell to Marcos Freitas 4-0, failing to advance on Sunday.

 

[Dolores1]

Dominican Republic's women's volleyball team grabbed one set off powerful Russia.

The London2012 official website calls today's match against the Russians "an almight scare."

Read on:
World champions Russia were given an almighty scare by the Dominican Republic before claiming their second win of the London 2012 women's Volleyball competition.

Russia had looked set for a second successive whitewash following their 3-0 win over Great Britain on Saturday, but they were rocked on their heels by a vibrant Dominican side who had the majority of a near-full crowd on their side.

They took the third set in dramatic fashion and had the chance to take the fourth, only for the experience and sheer size of the Russians to hold sway as they won 23-25, 15-25, 26-24, 22-25.

It was the free-flowing and flamboyant style of the Dominicans that had the Earls Court spectators on their feet, with their passing style a stark contrast to the all-out hitting of the Russians.

They still had power of their own, though, with the 26 points of Bethania de la Cruz de Pena outscoring any of the Russia players, but it was the on-court emotion and exuberance of her and her team-mates that helped them garner support.

 

[niknak]

You can see all the games live here (many On Demand too:
Juegos Ol?mpicos ? Programaci?n ? Terra

 

[Mauricio]

Yuli Gabriel Mercedes is the Dominican flag-bearer at the London Olympics. He competed in the Beijing Olympics and lost the gold to the Mexican athlete in a controversial judge decision. In taekwondo he competes in 58 kg division. ExCel venue hosts the taekwondo competitions at the London Olympics. Mercedes will compete as of 9:15am on 8 August.

So, this is the guy chewing gum while walking the defile of the athletes

 

[arrugala]

What's track and field Omg

 

[Hillbilly]

Push for the little girl on the vault on Sunday.
Domincan in boxing
The gum chewing flag bearer in Tae Kwan-do

That's it....

HB

 

[dv8]

What's track and field Omg

what do you mean OMG? i hate sports and i have never had any contact with english vocabulary in that boring matter. so TRACK AND FIELD is new to me. in polish it is called LEKKOATLETYKA (literally "light athletics") so i always assumed it would be somewhat similar in english.
doh.

 

[Hillbilly]

I understand the Polish!!
You should be more active!!

NOTE PLEASE: There are two Dominicans participating in boxing and wearing the colors of SPAIN!! One is from Jamao!!

HB

 

[dv8]

i exercise every day - my PE teacher from high school would have cry hearing that. i just do not like sport when it is competitive and organized.
buying athletes goes on everywhere, in london 2012 polish team members in table tennis are yi wang zeng and qian li...

and what do you know, track and field is a US term. british would just say athletics. leichtathletik in german, atletica leggera in italian and лёгкая атлетика in russian.

 

[dv8]

all that aside: not liking sports does not make me hate the athletes. i have huge respect for their skills and will power. i hope DR comes back from london with medals. we need good examples of hard working, honest and successful dominicans.

 

[belgiank]

Whether any athlete of any country wins, the fact that they got elected to compete at the Olympics is a great accomplishment in itself.

Having competed myself on a semi-high level in 2 sports myself, I have an idea of the dedication and sacrifice it demands of the athletes in question.

I can only admire them, and applaud them, regardless of whether they were successfull or not...

Especially those of poor countries, who never got the training facilities or the money, some of their competitors got from other countries....

Every Olympic athlete should be applauded...

BelgianK

 

[dv8]

i like how yamilet pe?a is at UASD studying accounting. it shows that not only she has skill and dedication to sports but also intelligence and foresight to get the degree and see her life beyond gymnastics - careers in that particular field do not last for long.

 

[Hillbilly]

DV8: Don't believe that she is really studying. No Olympic level athlete can pursue an academic degree while preparing for their sport. It just does not happen! However, the UASD is the UASD and you can be a student there for 40 years without graduating. Or spend 15 years there doing politics like Medina did without graduating!

However, back to sports! The DR volleyball team played Japan, lost 0-3, but the partials were close. The Japanese team was too fast and the DR team was inconsistent. THey are a world class team and, for me, represent the best of the Dominican sports effort as far as team sports go. (In spite of their use of purple in their shoes and uniforms).

Has anyone noted the much increased presence of black swimmers? Atkinson for Jamaica, Jones for the US?? And lots more. A positive sign.

I just dream of what could be done with the talent in the DR. I think that if the kid's minds were not so full of "alas de cucaracha" we could field some amazing athletes!! Remember that the vast majority of the ones that are there are from the poorest strata of our society. And the cost of getting an athlete to the Olympics is said to be about $250,000! Go Figure!

So where is Marco Diaz? He is not swimming in anything, because he is so slow! Great self-promoter but not a great swimmer.

That is what the "upper class" do, called "bulto" in local jargon. The sports where we could excel, such as shooting, archery, fencing, judo, wrestling, boxing, tae-kwan do, and other individual sports are almost never practiced by persons of economic power. There is a budding exception in Judo, Jordi Menicucci, who just won two gold in the US, winning the US Open in Ft. Lauderdale and another tourney in Texas, both against international competition. The three US judo players that are going for medals all took part in these same tourneys. Jordi is huge! I will send a picture to Wud and see if he will put it up here.

I am off to the orthopedist now. TTYL.


HB