PETALING JAYA, Dec 25 — Former star diver Bryan Lomas backs his coach Yang Zhuliang by saying the Chinese method is effective.
“During my days under Yang, Huang Qiang and Zhang Yukun, we trained extremely hard too but never complained. Everything was OK and we still competed at the Olympics,” said Bryan.
“So I really hope the replacement will be as good as Yang or better.”
The Sarawak-born Bryan became Malaysia’s first-ever world junior champion in Brazil in 2004 under Yang’s guidance.
National Sports Institutes (NSI) has decided to hire an Australian to replace the outgoing Yang.
Christian Brooker, named Australia’s Best Elite Youth Coach in 2014, is expected to replace Yang next month.
“Honestly, I never heard his name (Brooker),” said Bryan. “To me, Yang is well-known and developed Malaysian diving from an unknown power to world class.
“I hope the new coach will prove himself and get better results than Yang. He must.”
A former diver, who declined to be named, feels the issues surrounding Yang’s fate, cropped out is due to divers nowadays feel they are like “stars” and demanding.
“Thing is, the environment is different now as the divers have won medals at the Olympics, at Commonwealth Games and lots more. So each of them starts demanding for their own interest.
“During our time, when we felt coaches made wrong decisions, we still followed orders as we respected them as they knew better,” said the former Olympian.
The former diver also revealed all sports have their own dramas and so does diving.
“We have our own internal issues during my time too but never affected the divers in terms of contributing medals,” he said.
“What we, the former divers heard was Yang did not want to coach Pandelela Rinong next year and wanted to focus on others like world champion Cheong Jun Hoong.
“Pandelela will be under Zhang and when she heard about it, maybe she is not satisfied.
“The current diving team also has a lot of jealousy among them as they are stars and want to be a step ahead from their teammates.”
Meanwhile, Yang said he wants to move on and the National Sports Council (NSC) has respected his decision.
“I don’t want to work here anymore. No to the offer. I’m sad but will always love Malaysia,” he said.
NSC director general Datuk Ahmad Shapawi Ismail said Yang was offered to take charge of the development programme after his contract ends on Sunday.
“If that is his decision, we respect that and we wish him the best in his future endeavour.
“We offered him the development job as we always wanted him to train our future local coaches,” said Shapawi.
