Malaysia End Day With A Gold, Silver And Bronze

GOLDEN DIVE: Pandelela won gold in the women's 10m platform diving

NEW DELHI: A golden splash in the diving pool by Pandelela Rinong pushed Malaysia's gold medal tally to seven on the eighth day of competitions at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games raising hopes of achieving the ten-gold target.

On a day which saw the Games rocked by a doping scandal, Malaysia laboured to win a gold (diving), a silver and bronze (lawn bowls).

The eighth day got off to a wrong footing for the organisers as the first doping scandal burst onto stage, drawing attention of a vastly critical international media.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) President Mike Fennell revealed that Nigeria's 100m gold medallist Oludamola Osayomi had tested positive for using stimulants and that the second test was underway.

The result of the B sample is expected to be out today, a result that would determine the fate of the gold medal, in the blueribbon event of any major games.

The Nigerian was earlier elevated to the gold medal winner after Australian Sally Pearson was stripped of the gold medal for a false start.

It was a bad start too for the Malaysian camp until Pandelela Rinong bagged a precious gold in the 10m platform diving event, which gave the country the seventh gold.

Hashimah Ismail and Zuraini Khalid added a silver in the women's pairs at the l awn b o w l s arena, losing to England's Ellen Falkner and Amy Monkhouse 2-1 (6-12, 7-5,5-2) in the final.
Yesterday's focus switched to the final sessions of athletics at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, mainly the women's 200m, 800m finals and the men's 10,000 race which was part of the nine gold medals offered, but unfortunately there were no Malaysians in any of the races.

Today, another 20 gold medals will be up for grabs and at least a dozen Malaysians would be vying for glory in their respective events, especially in diving events, as the divers will certainly be boosted by Pandelela's golden outing yesterday.

Malaysia would be looking ahead to win more gold medals from world class lawn bowlers like Siti Zalina and Safuan Said in the individual events, and hope divers and table tennis players could bring home some extra medals.