Skip to main content

Long, hard road ahead

WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS: Being among the medal winners is going to be a tall order


THE encouraging performances of the divers at the recent World Series give a false impression that they are medal contenders at the World Championships, slated for July 19-Aug 4, in Barcelona, Spain.
Except for Pandelela Rinong and Leong Mun Yee in the women's 10m platform sychro, the rest are unlikely to make any impression.

The divers ended their campaign of the series by finishing in the top three overall bracket in three disciplines -- 10m platform and synchro; and 3m springboard synchro.
Despite poor scores throughout the six-leg series, Pandelela finished second overall in the platform individual.

The only reason she achieved it was because other top divers competed in selected events.
However, she and Mun Yee are genuine contenders in synchro at the world meet following their consistency in the series which saw them finish second overall

Cheong Jun Hoong and Wendy Ng also made an impact in springboard synchro by finishing third.
Pandelela needs to shape up if she hopes to become the first local to win an individual medal at the world meet.

After recording fifth position twice in the Rome (2009) and Shanghai (2011) editions, all eyes will be on whether Pandelela can make the podium this time.
She will find it tough, though, as a host of world and Olympic champions are also eyeing medals in Barcelona.

China's rising star Si Yajie and Olympic champion Chen Ruolin are expected to finish in the top two bracket leaving the others to battle for bronze.

Yajie, won three of the six legs and is being groomed to replace Ruolin if the latter decides to retire.
Russia's Yulia Koltunova, Britain's Tonia Couch and Mexico's Alejandra Orozco are among the other contenders.

Alejandra, 16, is a replacement for former world champion Paola Espinosa, who has switched to springboard after a knee injury.
With several new names on board, Pandelela cannot afford even one poor dive at the world meet.
The Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (ASUM) has been pushing its divers to more competitions this season to help them gain recognition from judges.

ASUM secretary Edwin Chong said reputation matters a lot in subjective sports.
"We want Pandelela and the others to be known to the judges. The diving fraternity knows China and they will not be marked down unless it is really a poor dive," said Edwin yesterday.
"It is not easy to do better than China's divers as their entries are clean. Our divers have no choice but to train harder and work on their consistency."

Edwin believes Pandelela-Mun Yee will finish strongly in the world meet.
"We have a chance in synchro as each nation can only field one pair. Pandelela-Mun Yee have been consistent throughout this season and should win a medal," Edwin added.
Pandelela-Mun Yee were the first medallists at the world meet, a bronze, in the 2009 edition.

Pandelela Rinong (left) and Leong Mun Yee look to be the only medal prospects.

Read more: DIVING: Long, hard road ahead - Other - New Straits Times

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