Diving gem: Pandelela Rinong is fancied to win a medal in the Youth Olympics.
By LIM TEIK HUAT
PETALING JAYA: Sarawakian Pandelela Rinong made the country proud after pulling off a stunning performance to win the girls’ 10m platform diving event in the Youth Olympic Games qualifiers in Guadalajara, Mexico, on Friday.
Malaysia will have a second representative for the inaugural Games to be held in Singapore from Aug 14-26 after Ooi Tze Liang made the cut with a sixth-place finish in the boy’s 3m springboard event.
Pandelela was placed third behind China’s Yu Zhou and Canadian Pamela Ware at the end of the preliminaries but put herself into gold medal contention in the final.
The Chinese diver was plagued by inconsistency and Pandelela went on to finish on top of a 12-diver field on 440.95 points.
Ware took silver for Canada on 401.60 while Annika Lenz of the United States relegated Yu Zhou to fourth place with a score of 381.15.
Tze Liang posted a 501.35 in the boy’s 3m springboard competition won by China’s Qiu Bo on 578.15.
The two-day event was to pick nine divers as automatic qualifiers in four individual disciplines.
The girls’ 3m springboard and boys’ 10m platform were to wrap up the Games qualifiers for the diving competition for those between the ages of 16 and 17-years-old.
The latest efforts of the 17-year-old Pandelela confirmed her status as the latest diving gem from Sarawak after ruling the platform disciplines at the Laos SEA Games last December.
Pandelela, who hails from Kampung Jugan in Bau, which is about 30km from Kuching, won the 10m platform individual and synchronised events in Vientiane as the Malaysian diving squad brought home a total of six gold medals.
She was roped into the national diving squad three years ago and stamped her mark in her World Championships debut in Rome last year, taking fifth place in the 10m platform event.
Pandelela went on to create history in the synchronised event with Leong Mun Yee, bagging the bronze for the country’s first-ever world championship medal in aquatics.
The Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia secretary, Edwin Chong, is happy that the country will have the maximum of two representatives in diving at the Youth Olympics.
“Pandalela used the same difficulties from the SEA Games but we did not expect her to win the 10m platform event because the field of divers were strong,” said Edwin yesterday.
“She has been dividing her time between studies and training due to her SPM exams later this year.
“It now looks like she has a very good chance to win a medal in the Youth Olympics.”
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