Pandelela Misses Out On A Place In Platform Final

PETALING JAYA: Pandelela Rinong failed to live up to her reputation as the Commonwealth Games women’s 10m platform champion after missing out on a place in the final at the FINA Diving World Cup in London on Tuesday.

The 19-year-old Sarawakian, who finished fifth in the event at the World Championships in Shanghai last year, was only placed 16th with 288.55 points in the semi-finals while team-mate Traisy Vivien Tukiet ended two rungs below with 280.55.

But it’s not Pandelela’s fault as she had been instructed to conserve her energy and to focus on the 10m synchro platform in a bid to qualify for the London Olympics.

Pandelela was to partner Leong Mun Yee in the 10m synchro platform preliminaries yesterday.

Missing the mark: Pandelela Rinong (above and inset) in action during the women’s 10m platform semi–final at the FINA Diving World Cup at the Aquatic Centre in London on Tuesday. – EPA

“Pandelela has already qualified for the Olympics in the individual 10m platform discipline and this is not her main focus,” said Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) secretary Edwin Chong.

“She has to concentrate on the two synchro events (platform and synchro) where we are trying to get the quota spot for the Olympics.

“It’s enough for her to get a feel of the venue in the preliminaries and semis.

“If she had make the final last night, it would be tiring for her as she has to come back early to do the platform synchro preliminaries and followed by the final the same day.

“Pandelela-Mun Yee will be up against strong competitors and we want them to be fresh for the challenge.”

China, Australia and Germany grabbed the first three spots at the world meet last year as the top three medallists together with Britain, who get in automatically as the host country.

This leaves four more spots up for grabs and Malaysia can expect to fight it out with Ukraine, Russia, United States, Mexico, North Korea and Canada.

Pandelela-Mun Yee won a bronze in the discipline at the 2009 world meet in Germany, which saw them roped into the Road to London programme.

They took silver behind Australian pair Melissa Wu-Alexandra Croak at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games and behind China’s Chen Ruolin-Wang Hao at 2010 Guangzhou Asian Games but failed to defend the bronze at the world meet last year.