KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia Swimming Federation (MS) hopes to include more of their athletes in the Road to Gold (RTG) programme in a bid to secure the country’s first gold medal at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
Currently, only Datuk Pandelela Rinong Pamg and Nur Dhabitah Sabri are listed among the 15 athletes in the RTG programme.
MS secretary-general Mae Chen said the athletes with the highest potential to be listed in the programme would include Wendy Ng.
“In diving, they would have to qualify (for the Paris 2024 Olympics) through the World Championships, which is one of the qualifying events.
“(Other than Pandelela and Dhabitah), an athlete that could highly possibly be included (in the RTG) is Wendy for the 3m (springboard) event.
“For the current generation of male divers, Ooi Tze Liang is the best that we have who may or may not qualify because the degree of difficulty for the men’s event is very high,” she said.
Wendy has not been listed in the RTG programme based on the criteria set by the committee – being a Tokyo Olympic medallist and ranked in the world’s top 10 in their respective sport.
To automatically qualify for Paris, the 29-year-old diver would need to finish in the top 12 in the 3m individual springboard event, or she and her partner would need to finish top three in the 3m synchronised springboard event at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in July in Fukuoka, Japan.
“Apart from the World Championships this year, the divers can also earn their Olympic qualifications through the Asian Diving Championships next year, which we are currently bidding to host,” Mae Chen added.
Mae Chen was met after hosting a visit from the chef de mission to Paris 2024 Olympic Games Datuk Hamidin Mohd Amin and deputy chef de mission Datuk Nicol David at National Aquatics Centre in Bukit Jalil here, today.
Following their meeting, Hamidin said the squad brought up several issues concerning their preparation for the prestigious quadrennial multisport event.
However, he was unable to disclose further details.
“The secretariat and I will do our best to address these issues as soon as possible so the divers can continue to focus on training.
“Due to personal reasons, I cannot share the details, but most of them are ongoing issues.
“If we cannot resolve this, we will bring the matters up to Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh,” he said.
Hamidin also hoped the committee could resolve the issues after the Hari Raya Aidilfitiri holiday. – The Vibes, April 18, 2023
