KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 ― Malaysia’s dynamic duo divers Pandelela Rinong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri could beat the badminton team to deliver the nation’s first Olympic gold tomorrow.

The Sarawakian and the Kuala Lumpur-born respectively both cleared the women’s individual 10m platform dive semi-finals at the Maria Lenk Aquatic Centre in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil tonight.

The duo were among 12 divers who will be participating in the finals scheduled at 3 am (Malaysian time) tomorrow.

Pandelela came in sixth place with a total score of 336.95 points while Nur Dhabitah was in eleventh with a score of 307.65 points.

However, the diving pair face stiff competition from the Chinese divers Si Yajie and Ren Qian, who are seen as the favourites to win the Olympic gold in the Rio Games.

Youth and Sports Minister Khairy Jamaluddin immediately took to Twitter to congratulate the women for making it to the finals and even paid tribute to their parents for supporting them this far.

"Fist bumps for the girls & big hug for Lela’s dad. Parents are the secret weapons to sporting glory!” he posted on his Twitter account @khairykj.

Pandelela has already garnered an Olympic medal last week. Together with Cheong Jun Hoong, the two won silver in the women’s 10m platform synchronised diving event, scoring Malaysia its first medal in Rio.

The 23-year-old will be looking to nab her second medal in Rio and Malaysians are cheering her on.

As for the 17-year-old Dhabitah, making it to the finals has been one of the best achievements in her first outing in the Olympic Games.

Malaysia have waited 52 years for an Olympic gold and had hoped to break the drought last night with mixed doubles pair Goh Liu Ying and Chan Peng Soon.

Despite losing to Indonesia, the shuttlers did the nation proud by bagging the silver, making it the first ever medal won by Malaysians in that category.

Next up after the divers will be shuttlers Goh V Shem-Tan Wee Kiong, who will vie for gold against China’s Fu Haifeng and Zhang Nan in the men’s doubles finals at 10.50 pm (Malaysian time) tomorrow.