Rekindling the fire

Good outing: Malaysia’s Leong Mun Yee (right) and Pandelela Rinong in action during the women’s 10m platform synchro at the World Championships in Gwangju on Sunday. — AFP

PETALING JAYA: Veteran diver Leong Mun Yee’s hopes of making her fifth Olympic Games appearance in Tokyo next year has been reignited.

The out-of-favour 34-year-old proved that she is still relevant when she reunited with Pandelela Rinong to claim their career-best silver medal in the 10m platform synchro at the World Championships in Gwangju, South Korea, on Sunday.

Their feat also won Malaysia the early ticket to the Olympics.

But neither Mun Yee nor Pandelela are assured of their places as athletes only secure berths for their country and not themselves.

Mun Yee has enjoyed a successful outing with Pandelela dating back to 2009 when they regularly won medals at the World Championships, Commonwealth Games, Asian Games and at the Diving World Series.

However, in the last three years, Mun Yee has dropped down the pecking order over world champion Cheong Jun Hoong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri.

The biggest setback was when she did not make the cut for the Rio Olympics three years ago.

The then head coach Yang Zhuliang deemed that Pandelela and Jun Hoong were the better bet for a medal. And the pair went on to win the country’s first silver in the sport.

Mun Yee has since moved on, competing in minor competitions and the non-Olympic mixed synchro event.

But Mun Yee has always delivered when called upon.

In fact, the world meet was not the first event that she came to the team’s rescue.

Last year, Mun Yee did well to cover for Wendy Ng, who was suspended for doping, to win the 3m springboard synchro bronze with Dhabitah at the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

She delivered with Dhabitah again when Pandelela was injured to win the 10m platform synchro at the Indonesia Asian Games.

Mun Yee was understandably delighted with her best outing in 10 straight world meets.

“A top-three finish was a tall order for us and I’m really glad we somehow managed to pull it off,” said Mun Yee yesterday.

“This is also the first time we qualified early for the Olympics. The previous two bronze medals I won with Pandelela in Rome (2009) and Barcelona (2013) were not during the Olympic qualifiers.

“So this was quite an achievement for us considering the circumstances. And we only trained for a week or so prior to the world meet.”

Mun Yee added that it wasn’t difficult to click with Pandelela.

“We’ve teamed up before and the chemistry is still there. We have known each other so well that we got everything right after a few training sessions,” explained Mun Yee.

Her exploits will certainly give coach Li Rui a selection headache when Jun Hoong and Kimberly Bong return from injury.