Pandelela concludes campaign with no individual medal

PETALING JAYA: There was no joy for Pandelela Rinong as she concluded her campaign in the Diving World Series in Kazan, Russia, without an individual medal.

Pandelela lost her grip on a place in the podium after fumbling her last two dives in the women’s 10m platform individual final on Saturday evening.

She only scored 48.00 and 56.00 for the fourth and fifth dives to tumble from second to sixth spot with 318.65 points.

Pandelela was on course for a medal earlier after posting 73.50, 73.95 and 67.20 in her first three attempts.

Pandelela had qualified for the final after posting 356.75 points to finish second in the first semi-final group earlier in the day.

China’s reigning Olympic champion Ren Qian claimed the gold with 389.10 points ahead of North Korea’s Kim Mi-rae, who finished with 362.35 points.

Gold Coast Commonwealth Games champion Melissa Wu of Australia continued her good momentum to finish with 351.80 points to take bronze – her first medal this season.

Pandelela, who had earlier bagged bronze with Cheong Jun Hoong in the 10m platform syn- chro on Friday, will be out to work on her weaknesses in training in China over the next two weeks.

Diving coach Zhang Yukun said they will likely return to Guangzhou, China, for training and then head to Wuhan for the Diving World Cup from June 4-10.

“The Diving World Cup competition will be for Pandelela to qualify in the top eight for the Diving World Series next year.

“The more important assignment is the Asian Games in Indonesia (in August) where we hope she can fight for a medal in the individual as well.”