KUALA LUMPUR, May 1 — National divers finally tasted their first high intensity competition abroad in more than a year as they kick off the 2021 FINA Diving World Cup held at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre in Japan, today.
However, luck was not on the side of Wendy Ng Yan Yee-Nur Dhabitah Sabri in the women’s 3 meter (m) synchronised after finishing the preliminary round in the 15th place with 217.95 points (pts) and were unable to break into the final.
China won the gold medal through Chen Yiwen-Chang Yani after totalling 317.16 pts, while Jinnifer Abel-Melissa Citrini Beaulieu of Canada clinched the silver (294.48 pts) and Kristina Ilinykh-Mariia Poliakova settled for the bronze (273.33 pts).
“We thought that we were very prepared for this competition, training well, and even in the warm up in this competition we did well but something happened during the competition and they messed up and unhappy about it.
“Unfortunately in sports this thing happened, you can have some good days and gonna have some bad days, unfortunately for us we just have a bad day with the girls, I’m looking forward to having conversation with Bitah (Nur Dhabitah) and Wendy (Ng) to find out what went wrong,” said head coach Christian Brooker.
Despite the poor show in the women’s event, Jellson Jabilin-Hanis Nazirul Jaya Surya managed to place themselves among the 12 pairs in the men’s 10m synchronised final with a surprising performance to finish the event in ninth place after scoring 359.82 pts.
Thomas Daley-Matthew Lee of Great Britain clinched the gold with 453.60 pts, 47.91 pts clear off Randal Willars Valdez-Ivan Garcia Navarro of Mexico with silver while Vincent Riendeau-Nathan Zsombor-Murray of Canada won the bronze after collecting 393.81 pts.
“The boys had an amazing performance, they did really well in pre lem to get into finals and the finals they dive even better, and that’s what we want to see in our athletes, we want to see they step up when the pressure is on,” Brooker said.
The 2021 FINA Diving World Cup from May 1-6 also serves as a qualifying competition for diving in the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games.
For the record, four national divers have already qualified for Tokyo 2020, namely Pandelela Rinong, Leong Mun Yee, Nur Dhabitah and Wendy Ng while Cheong Jun Hoong, Chew Yiwei and Ooi Tze Liang are hoping to qualify for the Games through the Diving World Cup. — Bernama
