He’s just terri-Fiq
Diver set to make C’wealth Games team after good performance in Australian GP
PETALING JAYA: Muhd Syafiq Puteh looks set to make his Commonwealth Games debut in Gold Coast, Australia, next April after a superb start for Malaysia in the Australian Diving Grand Prix.
The 21-year-old outshone his experienced Olympian Ahmad Amsyar Azman by qualifying for tomorrow’s 3m springboard individual final at the Gold Coast Aquatic Centre tomorrow.
Syafiq scored 363.10 points to grab the last spot from the second semi-final group behind Canadian Peter Mai (375.00) and China's Cao Yuan (412.80) yesterday.
Reigning world champion Xie Siyi of China topped the first semi-final group with 486.15 points, followed by 2016 Diving World Cup champion Yona KnightWisdom of Jamaica (412.20).
World Championships silver medallist Patrick Hausding of Germany scored 403.20 points to beat Olympic finalist Sho Sakai of Japan (361.35) to the last semi-final ticket from his grouping.
Amsyar was sixth in the first semi-final grouping, with 291.35 points, and missed out on a place in the top-six final.
In the earlier preliminaries, Syafiq, who partnered Jasmine Lai to win the mixed 3m springboard synchro at the KL SEA Games in August, did well to finish third (380.95) while Amsyar was 10th (352.65) .
National coach Yang Zhuliang was happy to see Syafiq pass the initial test at the same outdoor venue that will host the diving competitions for the Commonwealth Games next year.
“We brought the full team here for the Australian GP as we wanted them to get a feel of the conditions here before the Commonwealth Games.
“Syafiq performed very well today. I’m very happy he’s in the final considering the 3m springboard competition here is as tough as the world meet.
“I hope he can keep it up. He is ranked third among the Commonwealth countries and, if he keeps it up, he can get a medal,” said the Chinese coach.
In the women’s event, Pandelela Rinong and Kimberly Bong are also through to tomorrow’s women’s 10m platform individual final. Pandelela finished second (295.20pts) and Kimberly third (240.50pts) in the second semi-final group won by Australia’s Anna Rose Keating (297.10pts).
Australia’s 2012 Olympic silver medallist Brittany Brien (284.25), Canada’s Celina Toth (267.45) and Germany’s Christina Wassen (252.20) qualified from the first semi-final group.