Sarawakian won first ever world diving medal for Malaysia

tonynk9 · Post time 20-7-2009 02:12 PM

Malaysia wins first ever world diving medal (Update) ROME:Leong Mun Yee and Pandelela Rinong Pamg won the bronze at the 10msynchronised diving event at the World Championship here, believed tobe Malaysia’s first-ever world diving championship medal.
Olympicchampions Chen Roulin and Wang Xin of China won the gold medal with369.18 points on Sunday. Mary Beth Dunnichay and Haley Ishimatsu of theUnited States took the silver medal with 324.66 points.
Leong and Pandelela were third with 321.66.
Inthe 1m springboard diving event, Julia Pakhalina of Russia won the goldmedal, her first title at a world or Olympic event in nine years.

Malaysia'sMun Yee Leong and Pandelela Rinong Pamg perform on their way to clinchthe bronze medal of the women's 10-meter platform synchronized divingevent, at the FINA Swimming World Championships in Rome.- AP
Pakhalinaled from start to finish and totaled 325.05 points through thefive-dive final. Wu Minxia of China took the silver medal with 311.90points and Wang Han of China was third with 303.95. -- AP

manfrotto · Post time 20-7-2009 02:19 PM

tahniah ler

tonynk9 · Post time 20-7-2009 10:26 PM

Diving: Pandelela posts impressive finish in 10m platform final By LIM TEIK HUAT PETALING JAYA: Pandelela Rinong proved that she is indeed a Malaysianstar diver in the making by finishing an impressive fifth in thewomen’s individual 10m platform final at the World Championships inRome on Saturday.
The contest on the highest diving board saw ahuge upset, with Mexican Paola Espinosa beating reigning Olympicchampion Chen Ruolin of China to grab her first-ever gold medal at theworld meet.
And 15-year-old Pandelela, the youngest among the 12 finalists, certainly held her nerves throughout the five-dive competition.
Pandelelawas lying in 10th spot after the first two dives but improved threerungs after chalking up 73.95 points for the next dive.

Daringdive: Malaysia's Pandelela Rinong competing in the FINA WorldChampionships women's 10m platform final in Rome on Saturday.-AFP
Shecontinued to defend her position and executed her last dive well enoughto earn 76.50 to secure fifth place with a total of 354.45 points.
Pandelela,making her debut at the world meet, became the first-ever Malaysianwoman diver to earn a place in a World Championships final afterfinishing 11th in the semi-finals earlier.
Sarawak-born Pandelela had finished ninth in the preliminaries to reach the top-18 semi-final stage.
AnotherMalaysian, debutant Traisy Vivian fumbled in her fourth dive in thepreliminaries and was placed second last out of 31 competitors.
Pandelelahas certainly made a big impression in her biggest competition afterthe Beijing Olympics last year and it puts her in good stead headinginto the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games next year.
AmateurSwimming Union of Malaysia secretary Edwin Chong said the fifth placefinish was the best ever performance by a Malaysian diver at the seniorlevel of the world meet.
“Bryan Nickson also made the 10mplatform individual final at the last world meet in Melbourne in 2007but he finished seventh,” said Edwin in a telephone interview from Rome.
“Thistime, Pandelela showed good composure in the final to finish behind aCanadian (Meaghan Benfeito), the two Chinese (Kang Li and Ruolin) andthe Mexican (Espinosa).
“If she keeps on improving, she will notjust be in a good position to take part at next year’s Asian Games andCommonwealth Games but also to contend for the medals.”
Therewere more cheers when the men’s synchronised 3m springboard duo of YeohKen Nee and Rossharisham Roslan repeated their feat at the last worldmeet in Melbourne by reaching the top-12 final.
KenNee-Rossharisham, the silver medallists in the event at the 2006 AsianGames in Doha, finished ninth in the preliminaries with 394.47 points.And in the final, the Malaysian pairing chalked up 388.77 points for11th spot.