KUALA LUMPUR: Junior Abdul Rashid has been named as the partner for Bryan Nickson Lomas in the men’s 10m platform synchronised diving event of the Laos SEA Games.
But whether the 15-year-old will see action in Vientiane in December will very much depend on how he copes in training over the next two months.
Abdul Rashid, who won the silver medal in the boy’s Group B category of the Asian age-group aquatics championships in Japan in August, was among four newcomers named yesterday in a 10-member diving squad for the Games.
Also selected were women’s springboard divers Wendy Ng and Traisy Vivien, who were bronze medallists in the Asian age-group meet while Ahmad Fakhrul was picked as the second diver alongside seasoned campaigner Yeoh Ken Nee for the 3m springboard individual event.
World Championship finalist Bryan has been left without a regular partner since James Sandayud quit the sport two years ago. The duo achieved their best results by bagging the silver medal in the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
Bryan partnered Ahmad Fakhri at the 2007 Korat SEA Games and they finished fourth.
The Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia secretary, Edwin Chong, said that coach Yang Zhuliang would be looking at whether Abdul Rashid could complement well with Bryan.
“Bryan is the much more experienced diver and performs the higher level of difficulty. It will not be easy for Abdul Rashid to form an effective partnership with Bryan,” he said.
“We will see how he copes with the routines. If he is unable to follow, we will probably scratch the event and let Bryan concentrate on defending the individual title.”
Although there are four debutants in the team, the Olympic Council of Malaysia (OCM) have decided to place all the divers under Category A athletes.
Malaysia should be good to grab the lion’s share of the eight gold medals at stake with the biggest names in the region on board – Pandelela Rinong, Leong Mun Yee, Ken Nee and Bryan.
“The target is five gold medals. We won seven in Korat but this time, there are no competitions for 1m springboard,” said Edwin.
The squad bound for Vientiane will compete in the Asian championships in China at the end of next month
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