Diving / German Open: Golden boost for pair

PANDELELA Rinong and Leong Mun Yee etched their names into history books by becoming the first Malaysian divers to come out tops in a World Diving Grand Prix event on Sunday. Pandelela-Mun Yee achieved it by winning the women's 10-metre platform synchronised discipline in the German Open in Rostock. The pair were given some anxious moments before edging China's national back-up pairing of Si Yajie-Xing Yiying to secure the title with a 312.96 points total. The China pair's poor second dive relegated them to second with a 309.00 total. Germany's Nora Subschinski-Christin Steuer grabbed the bronze with 300.54 points. Pandelela-Mun Yee, who went in on a combined total difficulty of 13.4, led by a narrow margin after the China made their mistake in the second dive and the Malaysians never looked back after. It was Pandelela's second medal of the meet as she had claimed the silver in the individual platform discipline on Friday. Pandelela-Mun Yee, however, almost did not make it for the competition due to the plume of volcanic ash spreading from Iceland. The diving team's flight to Rostock last Tuesday arrived only half an hour before the airport was closed down. The feat will definitely give the pair confidence ahead of the World Championships in Shanghai in July, where they are hoping to retain the bronze they won in Rome two years ago. The stakes, however, are higher this time in the world meet as the top three pairs will qualify for next year's London Olympics. "It's a pleasant win but we still have a lot to work on as the competition will be stronger at the world meet. We need to practice harder as it is the only way to earn a ticket to the Olympics," said Pandelela in an e-mail yesterday. Bryan Nickson Lomas' campaign in the men's 10m platform ended when he finished fifth in the semi-finals with 461.30 points. Mun Yee also paired up with Wendy Ng to finish fourth in the women's 3m springboard synchronised final (260.70) while Cheong Jun Hoong reached the women's 3m springboard final of the grand prix circuit for the first time on Saturday. The divers will head to China for training as a final tune-up before the world meet.