HOPE STAYS ALIVE FOR JUN HOONG

Former world champ’s Olympic bid gets a boost

IT is certainly a huge relief for diver Cheong Jun Hoong (pic) to learn that her bid for a third straight Olympics is not yet dead and buried. This comes after Fina, the world governing body for aquatics, announced that the Diving World Cup will instead be rescheduled to May 1-6 in Tokyo.

Last week, Fina said it was moving the competition from Tokyo, reportedly due to Japan’s strict Covid-19 border rules.

It had been scheduled for April 18-23 but will now be held next month.

Tokyo 2020 and Fina said the decision to reschedule the Diving World Cup came after “a very fruitful consultation process” also involving the Japanese government and the International Olympic Committee.

The turnaround is a huge boost for 2017 world champion Jun Hoong who has not competed since undergoing knee surgery in 2018.

“When I first heard the news that the World Cup was called off on April 1, I thought it was an April Fool joke,” admitted Jun Hoong. “Now it’s confirmed that the meet is back on, and I hope that there will not be any more changes.

“It’s also good that I now have more time to practice my dives and improve on weaknesses.”

The Perak-born, who has been training under former national coach Yang Zhuliang for the past year, also participated in the selection trials organised by Malaysia Swimming (MS) on Friday.

The 30-year-old put up a score of 279.15 in the women’s 10m platform individual to finish behind Pandelela Rinong, who had 352.90.

“This is my second simulation competition since December, and I did much better than the first one after not diving from the 10m height for so long.

“I certainly believe I can get better with more training sessions,” added Jun Hoong, who needs to finish top 18 in the platform event at the World Cup to accomplish her Olympics mission.