Skip to main content

Coach Yang admits Pandelela must improve in future meets


No medal glint: Pandelela Rinong could only manage sixth placing in the individual 10m platform final of the FINA Diving World Series in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday. No medal glint: Pandelela Rinong could only manage sixth placing in the individual 10m platform final of the FINA Diving World Series in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday.

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong was given a timely reality check after a dismal performance in the individual 10m platform final of the FINA Diving World Series in Edinburgh, Scotland, on Sunday.

The London Olympic bronze medallist was unable to repeat the consistency she showed in the semi-final. As a result, she plunged to the bottom of the six-woman final in the series’ third leg.

The 20-year-old Bidayuh lass was looking good for a medal finish given her comfortable semi-final win and the absence of world and Olympic champion Chen Ruolin. But Pandelela, who won a bronze in the opening leg in Beijing last month, started on the wrong foot. She made two poor dives that earned her only 61.50 and 63.80 points. From there onwards, it was obvious that the podium was out of her reach.

She garnered 73.60 in the third dive but flopped again in the fourth with a disastrous 59.20.
The 2010 Commonwealth Games gold medallist signed off with a 72.00 for a 330.10 total.

China, the world’s diving superpower, picked up the gold through 14-year-old Si Yajie. The world junior champion was a runaway winner, accumulating 405.60 points.

Compatriot Liu Huixia took the silver with a 374.50 total while Mexican Alejandra Orozco chalked up 367.45 points for the bronze.

Said Malaysian head coach Yang Zhuliang: “Pandelela did not do badly, it is just that the standard of competition is high at the World Series. It is a good wake-up call. Now she needs to work a lot harder on her consistency ahead of the World Championships in Barcelona in July.”

Nevertheless, it was still a good outing for Malaysia with Pandelela-Leong Mun Yee winning the silver in the 10m platform synchro and a bronze through Cheong Jun Hoong-Wendy Ng Yan Yee in the 3m springboard synchro.

The medal won by Jun Hoong-Wendy was Malaysia’s first in the discipline at a world-level competition.

The Malaysian squad will head for Moscow tomorrow for this weekend’s fourth leg. The last two legs will be in Guadalajara (May 17-19) and Mexico City (May 24-26).



THE STAR

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