PETALING JAYA: Diver Bryan Nickson Lomas (pic) has raised hopes of snatching a first-ever medal at the World Championships in Shanghai in August – in the men’s individual 10m platform event – after an impressive performance in the Canadian Open in Montreal on Saturday.
Although Bryan was pushed into fourth spot in his pet discipline by three Beijing Olympic medallists, he at least had the satisfaction of beating a top Chinese diver for the first time.
Bryan posted 485.35 points to finish behind Beijing Olympic bronze medallist Gleb Galperin of Russia, who amassed 521.80 points.
Olympic champion Matthew Mitcham of Australia repeated his Beijing triumph as he amassed 541.20 points, including a string of perfect 10s in the third dive, to beat China’s Zhou Luxin (536.80) to the gold.
Bryan was the only Malaysian diver to qualify for the top six final in the Canadian Open, securing his place after finishing third in the first heat of the semi-finals (423.90).
Ooi Tze Liang also made it to the semi-finals, and in the same heat with Bryan, but his campaign came to a halt with a sixth-placed finish (364.35).
Bryan only scraped through to the semi-finals in 12th place in the preliminaries (382.80) as Tze Liang performed better in eighth place (400.35).
But Bryan can take heart from his performance in the final as he managed to get in front of the Chinese national team diver Yang Liguang, who was fifth on 473.25 points.
Bryan is optimistic he can further improve in the remaining weeks before the world meet in July.
“This is only my first competition of the year. I have improved on my routines but it is a matter of being more consistent now,” said the 20-year-old, who has made the top 12-final in the world meet twice.
“There is still a lot to improve on as the top two divers are still ahead of me but there is time.
“I did not have a clean third dive ... otherwise I could have beaten the Russian for a medal.”
Veteran diver Yeoh Ken Nee failed to qualify for the men’s individual 3m springboard finals, after finishing sixth in the semi-finals heat (406.20).
Ken Nee finished ninth in the preliminaries earlier (405.30) while Wendy Ng crashed out after finishing 19th in the women’s 3m springboard (238.15).
Back-up diver Traisy Vivien made the semi-finals of the women’s individual 10m platform in 12th spot (294.70) but Cheong Jun Hoong failed to progress in 16th spot (256.50).
Traisy’s campaign ended after finishing sixth in her semi-final heat (250.50).
The divers will head to Fort Lauderdale for the US Open this weekend.
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