Dhabitah Has No Regrets Over Switch From Swimming To Diving

A SIX-year-old girl was brought by her father into a swimming complex in Kuala Lumpur to be trained as a swimmer in 2005.

Unfortunately, the cute girl, Nur Dhabitah Sabri, was told by the coach to forget about swimming because her physical build was not suitable for the sport.

Dhabitah was encouraged to take up diving instead and she has never looked back since.

Nur Dhabitah Sabri

The pint-sized Dhabitah could turn out to be the surprise story for Federal Territories when the diving competition begins at Wisma Belia Swimming Complex at Bandar Indera Mahkota today.

“Dad (Sabri Hashim) wanted me to be a swimmer but he was told I was more suitable for diving.

“It really scared me in the beginning when I was standing on the platform and springboard but I got used to it after some time.

“It turned out to be exciting in a way,” said Dhabitah, now aged 13.

Dhabitah has since made her presence felt at the international level and is expected to make the national team in the next two years.

Dhabitah made her mark recently by bringing home two gold medals in the 1m and 3m springboard in her first international appearance at the inaugurual South East Asia Aquatic Championships in Singapore.

Dhabitah will be the main hope for FT as they bid to prevent the Perak duo of Kam Ling Kar and Jasmine Lai Pui Yee from a clean sweep of all five titles at stake in the women’s division.

The divers have not competed at the Asian or Commonwealth Games, thus allowing them to be entered for more than two events.

”This is the third Sukma for me but so far my best performance was a bronze.

”I often lost to Kar Ling and Jasmine but I hope to change that situation,” she added.

Dhabitah will participate in four events – the individual springboard and synchro as well as individual platform and synchro.

For the synchro, Dhabitah will team up with Loh Yi Jia, who is also from the national junior squad.

A total of 10 gold medals are up for grabs in diving.

Traditional diving powerhouse Sarawak, having lost the services of Traisy Vivien Tukiet and Pandelelea Rinong due to Olympic duties, will have to rely on Pardika Indoma and Abdul Rashid for honours.

Besides Perak and Sarawak, there are also talented divers from Selangor such as Chew Yiwei and Ng Zhenghao.