Set to soar
MALAYSIAN diving queen Pandelela Rinong made a breakthrough in her third Olympic appearance in Rio as she and partner Cheong Jun Hoong contributed a silver medal in the women’s 10m platform synchro.
She not just went one up on her achievement at the last Olympics in London but it was the first silver medal for Malaysia in any game outside of badminton.
It was also the first silver for our women athletes and it was won on Aug 9 – the very same date that the 23-year-old Pandelela won her bronze in women’s 10m platform individual four years ago.
The Malaysian pairing had 344.34 points to finish behind China’s Chen Ruolin-Liu Huixia for the country’s first medal.
The Chinese pair amassed a 354.00 total while Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito-Roseline Filion took the bronze with 336.18 points.
Sarawak-born Pandelela was especially elated over her latest success because of the pain she had been through.
She had been nursing shoulder and lower back injuries since the start of the year.
It affected her condition, especially in the individual event a few days later when she only managed an 11th placing despite making the final.
Pandelela, who partnered Cheong to take silver in the World Cup meet in Rio in February, later decided to take a six-month break in the hope of coming back fresher for the start of the competitive season in the FINA Diving World Series opening leg in China next March.
She also took the long break to resume her studies at Universiti Malaya (UM) after deferring it many times.
“I have missed out so much on my studies. I resumed my studies at UM after the Olympics but I’m still training to keep myself fit.
“I want to graduate ... it’s my fourth year in university, but I’m only doing the second year of the programme after deferring many times due to tournaments. Now, I can focus on my studies,” said the Sports Management student.
“I’ve stopped competing to make sure I fully recover from my injuries. Hopefully, I’ll come back stronger,” she added.
Pandelela’s major tournament next year is the 17th FINA World Championships in Budapest, Hungary from July 14-30.
She will also compete in the Kuala Lumpur SEA Games from Aug 19-31.