Traisy Gets Last Chance To Save Spot In Elite Gquad

Last chance: National diver Traisy Vivian Tukiet.

PETALING JAYA: The World Championships, starting in Barcelona on Saturday, is likely to be the last major outing for woman platform diver Traisy Vivien Tukiet – unless she can rise to the occasion.

It was only two years ago that Traisy was considered the second best diver after Pandelela Rinong in the women’s platform discipline when she made an impressive World Championships debut in Shanghai, where she just missed out on the top 18 semi-finals by one place.

She has since under-performed in two major competitions – the London Olympics last year and the just-concluded World University Games (Universiade) in Kazan – and it has not gone down well with the coaches.

She was placed 22nd at the Olympics and managed a poor 269 en route to finishing 11th out of the 12 finalists in her pet event in Kazan.

Russia’s Yulia Koltunova won the gold with 347.25 points followed by China’s rising stars – Xia Yuhua (335.75) and Chen Ni (312.45).

Coach Huang Qiang fears that Traisy may have seen her best days in the national elite team.

“Traisy did well at the Indonesia SEA Games two years ago but has not progressed since. She is taking things too easy in training and we do not know why she has lost it.

“We hope she will do well in Barcelona or she may never get another chance,” said Huang Qiang.