KUALA LUMPUR – The country’s diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong hopes that the Road To Gold (RTG) project will focus on bringing back more consistent support services to national athletes.
Pandelela said support services, such as the sports science team which she utilised in her two Olympic participations in 2012 and 2016, helped her contribute to medals at the world’s biggest sports event.
“Hopefully after this, the support services will be more consistent. In London and Rio, we had our attached masseurs and sports biomechanics, but for Tokyo 2020, there were none (support services).
“I am not getting any younger, while other divers need video analysis during training and competitions. If you want consistent results, but do not provide support (services), it will be difficult,” she told reporters at the 58th Malaysian Invitational Age Group diving championships here today.
Pandelela made history by becoming the country’s first female athlete to contribute a medal at the Olympic Games in the 2012 edition in the women’s 10m platform event by winning bronze, followed by silver in partnership with Cheong Jun Hoong in 2016 in the women’s 10m synchronised platform event.
Last month, the Youth and Sports Ministry announced the formation of RTG, which is a national project aimed to coordinate the country’s efforts in hunting for its maiden Olympic gold.
In the meantime, the Sarawakian is confident that the junior divers are highly capable, thus maintaining Malaysia’s dominance in the 2023 SEA Games in Phnom Penh, Cambodia.
In January, the diving contingent’s assistant coach Datuk Leong Mun Yee announced that elite divers would not be participating in the SEA Games to make way for young divers to gain exposure at the international level.
Earlier, Pandelela, who represented the national team, lived up to expectations when she won the women’s 10m platform event by collecting 326.05 points, followed by Sarawak diver Eilisha Rania Abrial Rajagopal (235 points). Ong Rei En from Singapore won the bronze with 208.25 points.
Commenting on her performance today, Pandelela said she was relieved to be back in action after last competing at the International Swimming Federation Diving Grand Prix here, last November.
She said this competition was a platform for her to prepare herself to take on the national challenge at the 2023 Diving World Cup in Montreal, Canada from May 5 to 7.
Meanwhile, national divers dominated the podium of the men’s 10m platform event which saw Bertrand Rhodict collect 404.15 points to win gold beating Jellson Jabilin who took silver (372.10 points) and Enrique Maccartney the bronze (338.75 points). – Bernama, April 3, 2023
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