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O<\/SPAN>n Saturday F \u00e9lix D\u00edaz wrote a new page in the history of Dominican sports when he won the Olympic gold medal in the Light Welterweight Boxing event in Beijing . <\/P> “\u201cI came here for a medal. I wanted gold and I got gold,\u201d said an ecstatic D\u00edaz after he defeated favored-to-win Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand by 12-4.<\/P> \u201cI came here for a medal. I wanted gold and I got gold,\u201d said an ecstatic D\u00edaz after he defeated favored-to-win Manus Boonjumnong of Thailand by 12-4. D\u00edaz\u2019s gold was the second medal to be won by a Dominican in Beijing . Yulis Gabriel Mercedes won a silver medal in Taekwondo. This gold medal represents an important milestone for the Dominicans as they\u2019ve been so few and far between. In 2004 when F\u00e9lix S\u00e1nchez won the gold medal for the 400 meter hurdles, it was the first time a Dominican athlete had ever stepped onto the winners\u2019 podium. D\u00edaz\u2019s victory, in fact, is the first medal to be won by a Dominican boxer in 24 years. Just as track star F\u00e9lix S\u00e1nchez was welcomed home after winning the gold in the 2004 Olympics in Athens , the Dominican people will pour out onto the streets to welcome home their second gold medalist: F \u00e9lix D\u00edaz. Message of Congratulations from the President<\/STRONG> President Leonel Fern\u00e1ndez sent a message of congratulations to the winning boxer F\u00e9lix D\u00edaz assuring him that the heart of every Dominican is overcome with pride and patriotism over this historical triumph. \u201cToday the Dominican Republic is united in our hearts, in a single heart. We watched every punch, every move, every bead of sweat that fell from this brave boxer as he fought in the ring\u2026fighting so that today our country can enjoy a second gold medal in an Olympic competition,\u201d said the President. The President and his family watched the fight from home. At 12:30 in the afternoon, Dominican time, the President called D\u00edaz and told him that he\u2019d felt in his heart from the beginning that he would win the fight. He assured D\u00edaz that the Dominican people are waiting for him to come home to give him the proud and joyous welcome he deserves. <\/P> \u201cOur two Felixes have made the Dominican people proud and happy and have shown that, regardless of how difficult the circumstances may be, the children of this land are prepared to demonstrate that we\u2019re always ready to move forward,\u201d said the President. <\/P> The President said that as he watched each moment of the fight, he felt a swelling of pride in his heart and later, hearing the notes of our national anthem, he felt he was there standing beside the boxer in Beijing . In his message of congratulation to F\u00e9lix D\u00edaz, President Fern\u00e1ndez underscored the challenge of strengthening sports in the Dominican Republic so that in the next Olympic Games we can win many more medals. He added that this can be done by showing sustained support for every athletic discipline. \u201cOur two Felixes have made the Dominican people proud and happy and have shown that, regardless of how difficult the circumstances may be, the children of this land are prepared to demonstrate that we\u2019re always ready to move forward,\u201d said the President. President Fern\u00e1ndez also congratulated the rest of the athletes who won medals at the games. He noted that they too will be greeted with the love and respect they deserve for having given their best to make us all proud to be Dominican. In addition and under the President\u2019s instructions, the architect Alma Fern\u00e1ndez, Director of the National Housing Institute (INVI) will give a house to the gold-medalist F\u00e9lix D\u00edaz. Ms. Fern\u00e1ndez noted that the government also awarded a home to the athlete Yulis Gabriel Mercedes, winner of the silver medal in Taekwondo, as part of the President\u2019s initiative to support and honor the Dominican athletes who compete for the nation in the Olympic Games. <\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/SPAN><\/P> <\/P><\/TD><\/TR> Diaz Brings Home the Gold – the Second for the Dominican Republic from Beijing Olympics On Saturday F \u00e9lix D\u00edaz wrote a new page in the history of Dominican sports when he won the Olympic gold medal in the Light Welterweight Boxing event in Beijing . “\u201cI came here for a medal. I wanted gold … Continue reading “Diaz Brings Home the Gold – the Second for the Dominican Republic from Beijing Olympics”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-noticias"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2416"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2416\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.dominicanaonline.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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\nDate of publication: August 25, 2008 <\/TD><\/TR><\/TBODY><\/TABLE><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"