Pandelela, Jun Hoong qualify for world final
PANDELELA Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong showed no signs of injuries when the Malaysians took fourth spot in the women’s 10m platform synchro preliminaries at the World Aquatics Championships in Budapest yesterday.
Pandelela suffered a shoulder injury in April while Jun Hoong aggravated her old back problem recently.
Both divers were given a less hectic training schedule in the build-up to the world meet as national coach Yang Zhuliang did not want them to suffer serious injuries.
Pandelela-Jun Hoong, the silver medallists at last year’s Rio Olympics, qualified for the final with 309.66 points.
World Series champions Ren Qian-Si Yajie topped the standings with a 334.32 total, followed by North Korea’s Kim Mi RaeKim Kuk Hyang (325.62) and Australia’s Taneka Koychenko-Melissa Wu (311.16)
The final, comprising 12 pairs, was held late yesterday.
“Pandelela and Jun Hoong performed well today despite still carrying injuries. I hope today’s performance will give them motivation,” said Zhuliang yesterday.
Jun Hoong blew her chance to earn an individual medal when she finished last in the 12-field women’s 1m springboard final on Saturday.
The Perak-born, who took third in the preliminaries, only garnered 252.45 points.
Australia’s Maddison Keeney won gold in the non-Olympic event in 314.95 points as China surprisingly ended up without a medal after Chen Yiwen took fourth on 294.70.
RESULTS (Finals): Men’s 3m
springboard synchro: 1 Evgenil Kuznetsov-Ilia Zakharov (Rus) 450.30, 2 Cao Yuan-Xie Siyi (Chn) 443.40, 3 Oleg Kolodiy-Ilya Kvasha (Ukr) 429.99…10 Ooi Tze Liang-Chew Yiwei (Mas) 370.77.
Women’s 1m springboard individual: 1 Maddison Keeney (Aus) 314.95, 2 Nadezhda Bazhina (Rus) 304.70, 3 Elena Bertocchi (Ita) 296.40….12 Cheong Jun Hoong (Mas) 252.45.
Mixed’s 10m platform synchro: 1 Ren Qian-Lian Junjie (Chn) 352.98, 2 Lois ToulsonMatthew Lee (Bri) 323.28, 3 Kim Mi-rae-Hyon Il-Myong (Prk) 318.12. Ajitpal Singh