Skip to main content

DIVING: Sacrifices pay off

Mun Yee eyes perfect swan song in London Olympics

   LEONG Mun Yee will emulate sailor Kevin Lim's record of four Olympics Games after  she qualified for the London edition in the women's 10-metre platform synchro along with Pandelela Rinong at the World Cup in London on Wednesday.
   Mun Yee, who featured in  Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and  Beijing 2008,  will  make her fourth and final appearance in London in July before she retires.

   The 27-year-old and Pandelela,  bronze medallists in the same event at the 2009 World Championships, finished seventh by earning 307.86 points but it was enough to earn one of the four quota Olympic spots.

   All hopes were on them to make an impact in the final after a blazing performance in the preliminaries where they finished third on 318.42.

   However, average dives in the third, fourth and fifth rounds saw them plunge  out of the medals.

   It is, however, still an excellent effort as most of the competing nations in London are focusing on  synchro disciplines.

   Malaysia have officially qualified for seven Olympic events through six divers --  Bryan Nickson Lomas (men's 10-metre platform individual; and 3m springboard individual and synchro), Yeoh Ken Nee (3m springboard individual), Huang Qiang (3m springboard synchro), Pandelela Rinong (women's 10m platform individual and synchro), Mun Yee (10m platform synchro) and Traisy Vivien Tukiet (10m platform individual).

   Mun Yee was close to tears after clinching her Olympic spot on Wednesday.

   "I have sacrificed so much for the sport since young. I even had to defer my semester  a few times over the years for competitions and finally my hard work has paid off," said Mun Yee,  a third year student with Universiti Putra Malaysia, when contacted in London on Wednesday.

   "I thought I wouldn't qualify for my fourth Olympic Games after failing to do well in previous qualifying competitions. Anyway, I have done well here.

   "I am the first local woman athlete to qualify for four straight Olympics.  It is quite an achievement but what is more memorable is that I have achieved something very few locals have managed."

   China's Chen Roulin-Hao Wang clinched the gold with a score of 359.58 followed by Canada's Roseline Filion-Meghan Benfeito (331.65) and Britain's Tonia Crouch-Sarah Barrow (314.40).

  "I think we have a good chance of challenging for a medal in London unlike in previous Olympics where I only made up the numbers. Pandelela and I have won medals in  major diving competitions except for the Olympics. We will train hard this time."

Read more: NST

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ex-coach's jail sentence cut to a year

PUTRAJAYA: The Court of Appeal yesterday sentenced former athletics coach C. Ramanathan to 12 months' jail for molesting two junior athletes 19 years ago. A three-man bench led by Datuk Mohd Hishamudin Mohd Yunus unanimously dismissed Ramanathan's appeal against conviction, but varied the jail sentence of four years to a year, which was to run concurrently. Following yesterday's ruling, Ramanathan, 75, a former teacher, walked out a free man as he had served 10 months in Kajang Prison. Convicts get one-third remission for good behaviour while in prison. However, he will lose his pension. Hishamudin, who sat with Datuk Abdul Wahab Patail and Datuk Linton Albert, said the court found no merit to overturn the conviction. "However, in reducing the sentence, we considered Ramanathan's age and the long years the appeal has taken." Deputy public prosecutor Awang Armadajaya Awang Mahmud submitted that then High Court judge Tan Sri Abdull Hamid E...
2 comments
Read more

Badminton: Fans rooting for all-Malaysian semis

Reports: RAJES PAUL KUALA LUMPUR: The home fans will be rooting for an all-Malaysian men’s singles semi-final between Lee Chong Wei and Liew Daren. But Chong Wei is more fancied to advance than Daren in quarter-final matches against Indonesian Simon Santoso and Dane Peter Gade-Christensen respectively at the Putra Stadium in Bukit Jalil today. Yesterday, Chong Wei defeated Vietnamese Nguyen Tien Minh 21-9, 18-21, 21-7 in a second-round match that saw the world number one struggling to adapt to the draught in the stadium in the second game. And Daren continued a fairy tale run in his home Open, blowing away a toothless Hsueh Hsuan-yi of Taiwan 21-14, 21-12. Although Choong Wei had to slog for the win over Tien Minh, the top seed and defending champion felt that he was playing better by the day. “I got off to a good start but found it hard to cope with the draught. I tried to catch up after losing my momentum but that did not happen and I decided to conserve energy for ...
11 comments
Read more

Rajagobal Let Off The Hook

PETALING JAYA, April 24 (Bernama) -- National head coach Datuk K. Rajagobal was let off the hook by the Football Association of Malaysia's (FAM) Disciplinary Committee after finding no evidence that he had violated FAM's Article 88, as claimed. FAM Disciplinary Committee chairman Datuk Taufik Abdul Razak said the committee had decided not to charge Rajagobal after carefully analysing the video of the post-match press conference by the 56-year-old coach. "After listening to the recording of the post-match press conference, we decided to drop the charge against Rajagopal as he did not make such a statement. "Maybe his (Rajagobal) assessment and comments of the match was misconstrued by the media. There was no mention of the FAM policy throughout his comments," said Taufik after emerging from a three-hour Disciplinary Committee meeting at Wisma FAM in Kelana Jaya, here, Wednesday. Rajagobal who does not mince his words when asked to com...
4 comments
Read more