By LIM TEIK HUAT
KUALA LUMPUR: After earning a surprise bronze at the World Championships in Rome, diver Pandelela Rinong is looking at double glory in the Laos SEA Games at the end of the year.
And yesterday, the 16-year-old showed that she is on track to achieve just that by living up to her billing as the top platform diver in the Mini Olympic Games at National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday.
Pandelela led from start to finish to claim her third gold of the Games with a total of 344.55 points.
Back-up divers Traisy Vivien and Kam Ling Kar took silver and bronze with 250.00 and 218.80 points respectively.
That the competition was more of a warm-up test for Pandelela was expected but she was happy to maintain her performance on the highest board despite having just returned from a successful campaign in Rome.
The Sarawakian partnered Leong Mun Yee to clinch a bronze in the 10m platform synchronised for the country’s first-ever World Championships medal in aquatics.
That achievement resulted in diving making it to the 2012 Road to London programme by the government alongside badminton, cycling and archery.
Pandelela, who also finished a very impressive fifth in the individual 10m platform final in Rome, said the year-end SEA Games will be her biggest test after this.
The 10m platform synchronised gold should belong to Malaysia as none can com
e close to what Pandelela-Mun Yee are putting up.
“I will have one or two more competitions coming but the SEA Games will be my main goal after this.
“I have not won the individual gold before and I hope to make it after coming close two years ago,” said Pandelela, who took silver in the individual platform in her SEA Games debut in Korat two years ago.
She managed to take a gold, however, with partner Cheong Jun Hoong in the 10m platform synchronised event.
There is no break for Pandelela as she has to leave for Tokyo this weekend for the Asian age-group championships.
In the men’s 10m platform final, Bryan Nickson also came out tops as expected.
Bryan, who was a finalist in the event in Rome, led the field after the preliminaries and maintained his performance to finish with 441.90 points for the gold.
Ooi Tze Liang took silver with 314.85 points while Abdul Rashid had the bronze on 281.45 points.
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