PETALING JAYA: Teenager Pandelela Rinong made history when she became the first Malaysian female diver to qualify for the final of the World Championships in Rome yesterday.
The 15-year-old from Sarawak, who competed in the Beijing Olympics last year, earned cheers in her debut appearance in the world meet when she finished 11th in the semi-finals of the women’s individual 10m platform to guarantee her place in the final.
The top 12 divers go through to the final and Pandelela was running outside the elite group, finishing in 16th position after the first three dives.
However, she improved to 13th spot after scoring 68.80 for the fourth dive.
In her fifth and final dive, Pandelela was rewarded with her highest score of 74.80 to finish with a total of 306.05 points.
Sarawakian sensation: Pandelela Rinong finished 11th in the semi-finals of the women’s individual 10m platform to seal her place in the World Championships final in Rome. Pandelela had finished ninth with a total of 314.10 points in the preliminaries on Friday to advance to the semi-finals. The top 18 divers from the field of 31 in the preliminaries progressed to the semi-finals yesterday.
Pandelela is only the second Malaysian diver to make a World Championships final appearance.
Bryan Nickson was the first to achieve the feat at the last world meet when he made the final for the men’s individual 10m platform.
Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) secretary Edwin Chong was happy to see Pandelela stamping her mark on the world stage.
“It is a big achievement for her as this is the highest level of competition. She did not do very well at the Olympics because of her lack of experience.
“But she trained harder and practised on the new dive routines. She was able to execute them on a consistent basis and managed to break into the final today,” said Edwin in a telephone interview from Rome.
Pandelela has shown her ability when she first won four gold medals at the Asian Junior Championships two years ago before going on to make her debut at the Korat SEA Games in 2007 with a silver medal in the individual 10m platform.
In the men’s 1m platform, Malaysia’s Muhd Fakhrul hardly made a splash on his debut.
He was placed 33rd in the men’s individual 1m springboard with 250.65 points out of 35 competitors.
Qin Kai led a Chinese one-two sweep of the 1m springboard event, with compatriot Zhang Xinhua edging Australia’s Olympic 10m platform champion Matthew Mitcham for the silver.
The focus will be on Doha Asian Games silver medallists Yeoh Ken Nee-Rossharisham Roslan to follow in the footsteps of Pandelela when they compete in the men’s synchronised 3m springboard today.
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