Pandelela and Mun Yee score a first for Malaysia in GP circuit diving

PETALING JAYA: The top Malaysian diving pair of Pandelela Rinong-Leong Mun Yee almost did not take part in the German Open in Rostock due to the plume of volcanic ash spreading from Iceland. The team’s flight to the city in northern Germany last Tuesday arrived 30 minutes before the authorities closed the airport. And Pandelela-Mun Yee should be thanking their lucky stars that they got to compete in the Open and went on to carve out a historic achievement for Malaysia in diving last Sunday.

Pandelela-Mun Yee won the women’s 10m platform synchronised event and they are the first Malaysian divers to come out tops in the World Diving Grand Prix. The duo held off the Chinese back-up pair of Si Yajie-Xing Yiying in the last two attempts to secure the gold on 312.96. Yajie-Yiying had made a mess of the second dive to drop to fourth place. But the Chinese pair, who had the combined highest total difficulties of 13.7 in the field, recovered to take silver on 309.00. Germany's Nora Subschinski-Christin Steuer took bronze on 300.54. Pandelela-Mun Yee, who went in on a combined total difficulties of 13.4, took advantage of a narrow lead after the second dive and pressed on for a breakthrough victory. It was also the second medal for Pandelela in the meet after claiming a silver in the individual platform discipline last Friday. Pandelela was delighted with their efforts and considered it a good boost ahead of their world championship campaign in Shanghai in July where they are hoping to at least match their bronze medal-winning performance at the previous meet. In Rome two years ago, they landed the first world championship medal for Malaysia in aquatics. But the stake will be even higher in Shanghai this time as the top three pairs earn early qualification for the London Olympics next year. The German Open was the last meet for us before the world championships. The coach felt this will be a good tune-up as we can see what we need to improve on before we go to Shanghai,said Pandelela, who will head for China together with her team-mates for centralised training. âs a pleasant surprise to win the gold medal here but we still have a lot to work on as the competition is stronger at the world championships. Bryan Nickson’s campaign in the men's 10m platform ended with a fifth-place finish in the semi-finals. In the women's 3m springboard synchronised final, Mun Yee paired up with Wendy Ng for fourth place. Cheong Jun Hoong reached the women's 3m springboard final for the first time on a GP circuit meet last Saturday and finished sixth.