High divers
Bryan and Huang earn first-ever synchro spot in the Olympics
The newly-formed pairing of Bryan Nickson Lomas-huang Qiang made a historic plunge on a cold night in London to become the first Malaysian synchronised divers to qualify for the Olympic Games. The duo survived a tough competition to clinch a bronze in the men’s synchro 3m springboard final with a total of 432.09 points for Malaysia’s first ever medal in the FINA Diving World Cup.
PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s newly formed pairing of Bryan Nickson Lomas-huang Qiang were on fire on a cold night in London as they made a historic plunge on the opening day of the FINA Diving World Cup in London.
Bryan, partnering the former Chinese diving star for the first time, survived a tough competition to clinch the bronze in the men’s synchro 3m springboard final with a total of 432.09 points.
It was not just the first time Malaysia won a World Cup medal in diving but the pair also successfully nailed the first ever Olympic quota spot in synchro diving for Malaysia.
China’s Qin Kai-luo Yutong and Russia’s Evgeny Kuznetsov-illya Zakharov, the gold and silver medallists at the World Championships in Shanghai last year, repeated their feats after notching 445.71 and 439.83 respectively.
China and Russia already qualified through the world meet last year and that meant that the next four finishers – Malaysia, Ukraine, Canada and the United States – earned spots to compete in London. Making up the eightnation field for the men’s synchro 3m springboard are Mexico, the bronze winner at the world meet, and Great Britain, who qualify automatically as the host country.
With 18-year-old Traisy Vivien later confirming another quota spot for Malaysia after reaching the women’s individual 10m platform semi-finals, Malaysia already have five divers in the fray and looks set to sent the biggest diving squad in Olympic history.
The previous best was when four divers represented the country in diving for the first time in Olympic history back in Sydney in 2000.
And naturalised Malaysian Huang Qiang is definitely proud to make an immediate impact in his first competition in six years.
They raised hopes of grabbing a place in the Olympics after finishing fifth in the preliminaries earlier in the day.
Huang Qiang, who will be 30 by April, got married three years ago but it was only last year that he became a Malaysian citizen.
In his prime, Huang Qiang formed an unbeatable partnership with Tian Liang and the China pair were then the hot favourites at the 2000 Sydney Olympics before injury forced him to turn to coaching.
“I got injured days before moving to the Games Village at that time and had to drop out.
“When I started training last year after I got my citizenship, I do not know whether I have the chance to compete in the Olympics. But I trained very hard and it was tough as I was also coaching.
“Now there’s a big chance for me to go because we are in. I am happy I am able to stand on the podium for Malaysia at the same time. Now that we have qualified we will work harder as there is a good chance of getting an Olympic medal as only eight pairs are in fray,” said Huang Qiang, who won an Asian Games silver medallist in 1998 when he was only 16.
Team manager Kelvin Chong credited the pair for hitting it off.
“Huang Qiang was picked ahead of Yeoh Ken Nee at the last minute in a bid to help Malaysia qualify for the synchro discipline for the first time in Olympic history.
“We knew we were in for a very tough fight as at least seven or eight countries were eyeing the remaining four spots from here.
“Moreover, they were on lower difficulties compared to the other top pairs as Huang Qiang has not dived for so long. We were in bronze medal position after the third dive and thankfully, our pair make no mistakes,” he said.