DRY DAY AT THE POOL
Malaysian divers struggle at World Cup in Tokyo
IF the results of the ongoing Diving World Cup are anything to go by, Pandelela Rinong and Leong Mun Yee certainly need to up their game if they are to win a medal at the Tokyo Olympics.
The duo, silver medallists at the 2019 World Championships, surprisingly failed to land a medal in the women’s 10m platform synchro at the Tokyo Aquatics Centre yesterday.
The vastly experienced Pandelela-Mun Yee were
Malaysia’s best hope for a medal in the World Cup but they could only manage 288.36 over five dives to settle for fourth place.
Pandelela-Mun Yee had tallied 290.70 in the preliminary round to qualify for the final in fifth place but they faltered in the later stages.
The Malaysians were expected to finish on the podium as the World Cup pool was diluted by the absences of diving powerhouse China, Australia and North Korea.
More disappointingly for Pandelela-Mun Yee was the fact that they were leading the field after three rounds but saw their medal hopes dive after producing only 62.40 and 58.56 in the fourth and fifth dives.
Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito-Caeli McKay won the gold with 305.94 followed by Britain’s Lois Toulson-Eden Cheng (302.88) and Germany’s Christina Wassen-Tina Punzel (292.86).
Canada, Britain, Germany and fifth placed Mexico all picked up the remaining four slots for the Tokyo Olympics.
In the men’s 3m springboard synchro event, Ooi Tze Liang-Chew Yiwei tried hard, but it was not enough for them to earn an Olympics ticket.
Tze Liang-Yiwei had qualified for the final after finishing 11th in the preliminary round with a score of 336.21 after six dives.
And they upped their effort in the final with 385.50 but it was only good enough for seventh spot, thus missing out on one of the four Olympic slots.
Britain’s Daniel Goodfellow-Jack Laugher blew the field away with 440.94 while Germany’s Patrick Hausding-Lars Rudiger took silver with 433.92. Russia’s Evgenii Kuznetsov-Nikita Shleikher took bronze with 415.86.