A Bronze From Diving Pandelela–Mun Yee

PETALING JAYA: Not even a sudden battle cry from an enthusiastic supporter could stop the Malaysian diving pair of Pandelela Rinong and Leong Mun Yee from winning the bronze medal in the World University Games (Universiade) women’s 10m platform synchro final at the Shenzhen Notatarium in China yesterday.

Pandelela and Mun Yee made a jittery start as they languished in fourth spot with two dives to go.

Then there was a sudden shout of ‘Malaysia Boleh’ just as the pair were timing themselves up to leap from the board for the third dive.

Pandelela-Mun Yee, however, did not flinch and kept their nerves in check to pull themselves back into medal contention with a 73.92 score.

Dynamic duo: Pandelela Rinong (left) and Leong Mun Yee recovered from a jittery start to finish third in the women’s 10m platform synchro event yesterday

The Malaysian pair did not disappoint as they earned 82.56 for their fifth and final attempt to bag the bronze with a total of 316.98 points.

It was the second medal for Malaysia at the Universiade after Pandelela grabbed a silver in the women’s 10m platform individual event on Thursday.

China’s Chen Ruolin-Wang Xin, the gold medallists in the same discipline at the Beijing Olympics in 2008, stepped up in the last two dives to win the competition with 349.98 points.

2009 world champion Paola Espinosa earned her second medal for Mexico as she partnered Tatiana Ortiz to the silver with 330.48 points.

Espinosa had won the individual gold medal on Thursday.

With two medals in the bag, Malaysia are now assured of their best ever finish at the Universiade. Their previous best result was in Bangkok four years ago when Che Chew Chan won a silver in women’s taekwondo.

Pandelela felt glad to contribute a second medal for the country.

“I feared the worst when the shouts caught me by surprise just as we were about to leap.

“I hope it does not happen again but we certainly appreciate the support from our Malaysian supporters. I’m glad we held up although we made some mistakes early on,” said Pandelela.

“We were looking to get a medal of any colour in today’s event and that’s why Mun Yee skipped the semi–finals of the women’s 10m platform individual on Thursday in order to focus on the synchro. I hope we can get another medal in the team competition,” she added.

The medals for the team event on Monday combines all the performances from the country’s representatives in the individual and synchro disciplines.

In the men’s 1m springboard individual, Ahmad Amsyar made the semi–finals but failed to advance further after finishing fifth with 280.55 points.

Ahmad just made the cut after finishing 12th in the preliminaries with 363.15 points.

The second Malaysian entry, Fakhrul Izzat, ended 15th with 323.60 points.

Malaysia completed their campaign in cycling with Kimbeley Yap finishing 10th in the women’s 20km points race while the shooters and track and field athletes failed to make any impact after two days of competition so far.