BEIJING: Malaysian diver Pandelela Rinong showed in the past two legs of the Fina Diving World Series the quality she is made of for a podium finish in the world championship in Shanghai in July.
The 17-year-old Sarawakian nailed a first-ever silver medal for Malaysia in the 10m platform in the opening leg of the series in Moscow about a week ago.
Class act: Pandelela Rinong in action during the women’s 10m platform event at the FINA Diving World Series in Beijing last week.
On Saturday, she combined well with Leong Mun Yee to take another silver in the 10m platform synchronised final in the second leg in Beijing. Pandelela was also close to win the bronze in the individual discipline but fell short by 0.45 points behind Aussie Alexandra Croak.
Pandelela said that she was happy with her tremendous progress over the past two years that had seen her winning a bronze in the world championship in Rome, the Commonwealth Games gold medal, a silver and bronze medal in the Guangzhou Asiad and now two silver medals in the World Series.
“It’s good that I covered the mistake that I made in the synchronised final in Moscow (Pandelela-Mun Yee came fourth after their poor last dive). I performed very well with Mun Yee in China this time and I am very satisfied,” she said after her win in the discipline on Saturday.
Mun Yee said that they had learned from their experiences and it was a relief that they did not repeat the mistakes in Moscow.
“We are certainly very happy to win this silver medal,” she said.
The duo will look to continue their fine form in the third and last legs in Sheffield (April 15-16) and Guanajuato (April 22-23) before heading to Shanghai for the world championship.
Their closest rivals for a podium finish are Australia’s Alexandra Croak and Melissa Wu, who won two bronze after the two legs, and Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion, who were the runners-up in Moscow and were placed fourth in Beijing.
Melissa was down with a back injury all week long that she missed the individual 10m platform discipline. But she returned in the synchronised final and still managed to pull off a good result.
“Melissa is carrying some injuries and having been able to come out today to perform in the way she did was quite remarkable,” Alexandra said.
China’s reigning Olympic and world champion Chen Ruolin and her partner, Wang Hao, were the runaway winners in the world series. The competition features only the top divers in the world.
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