Skip to main content

Pandelela on course for another medal in Edinburgh

In-form: Pandelela Rinong scored a total of 366.90 points in the women’s individual 10m platform preliminaries at the third leg of the FINA Diving World Series in Edinburgh, Scotland, yesterday. In-form: Pandelela Rinong scored a total of 366.90 points in the women’s individual 10m platform preliminaries at the third leg of the FINA Diving World Series in Edinburgh, Scotland, yesterday.
 
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia could achieve their best-ever outing in the FINA Diving World Series after Pandelela Rinong raised hopes of another medal finish with a strong performance in the women’s individual 10m platform preliminaries at the third leg in Edinburgh, Scotland, yesterday.

The London Olympic bronze medallist confidently strode into the final after winning semi-final B.
The 20-year-old Sarawakian, the two-time national Sportswoman of the Year, performed well in all her five attempts to garner 366.90 points. It was her highest score since she returned to action this year.
Russia’s Yulia Koltunova (349.55) and Mexico’s Alejandra Orozco (339.25) made up the top three standings to advance to the top-six final.

China’s second stringers Liu Huixia (373.50) and Si Yajie (371.05) finished first and second respectively in semi-final A. Also making the final six is Britain’s Tonia Couch (356.00). Olympic silver medallist Brittany Broben of Australia exited the competition after finishing last with 327.45 points.

If Pandelela can improve further on her performance, she may even stand a chance of grabbing her first-ever gold in the series as reigning Olympic and world champion Chen Ruolin of China and Meaghan Benfeito of Canada are not competing. Ruolin and Benfeito were the gold and silver medallist respectively in the first two legs in Beijing and Dubai last month.

Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia secretary Edwin Chong said Pandelela should be able to win her second medal in Edinburgh.

Pandelela partnered Leong Mun Yee to win the silver in the 10m platform synchro on Friday. Malaysia earned their second medal after Cheong Jun Hoong-Wendy Ng Yan Yee clinched the bronze in the 3m springboard synchro.

“Pandelela won a bronze in Beijing but she finished fifth in Dubai. We hope she can finish well on the podium this time as it will be a good reflection of her chances in the World Championships in Barcelona in July.

“The Chinese divers have always dominated the platform event in the series and we hope for a major breakthrough,” said Edwin.



LIM TEIK HUAT - THE STAR

Comments

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...

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 ...

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...