Bryan confident of divers
FORMER Olympian, Bryan Nickson Lomas is confident that the national diving squad are more than capable of retaining their position of being second best overall at the Asian Games and therefore repeat their feat at the Incheon edition four years ago.
According to Bryan, the focus will once again be on the national women’s divers especially the repairing of Pandelela Rinong and Leong Mun Yee, after world champion Cheong Jun Hoong suffered injury problems.
“This time around I feel that we can definitely pull off a repeat of the achievement made four years ago in Incheon, where we were second overall with two silver and three bronze medals, as we have Pandelela, Mun Yee, Ng Yan Yee, Chew Yiwei, Ooi Tze Liang and Ahmad Amsyar Azman.
However, it is our women’s divers who are expected to shine once more in Indonesia and I am not at all worried about their form,” said Bryan who last represented the country at the Asian Games in the 2010 edition that was held in Guangzhou, China, where he won two silver medals.
The men’s divers are expected to face tough competition as divers from South Korea and Japan have showed notable improvements in terms of form.
“If our women’s divers are able to maintain top form then there should be no problems, but the men’s will have their work cut out for them over there.
“In the women’s platform event, we have the edge in terms of complexity, so there should be no problems in winning a medal though South Korea could pose a serious threat, while China as we all know are the best in the world,” said Bryan.
He feels that pairing Pandelela and Mun Yee once again even though at the very last minute is not such a big problem as both of them were the ones who won the country’s first medal at the World Championships back in 2009.
“Mun Yee is a very experienced diver, a veteran who I feel will have no problems in forming a good, winning partnership with Pandelela as they have successfully done so before. And in the 3m synchronised platform event, Yan Yee and Nur Dhabitah Sabri are also in with a good chance to contribute a medal,” said Bryan.
Diving competition at the Games will take place at the Gelora Bung Karno Aquatics Centre from August 28 to September 1, with 10 gold medals on offer.