Fast-track the back-up divers

Time to dive in: Ong Ker Ying, who’s focusing on the springboard, is one of the promising juniors that Malaysia Swimming are grooming for the future.

PETALING JAYA: The junior divers will be given exposure to higher level competitions starting this year if the situation permits.

It’s necessary to groom future talents following the retirements of seniors Leong Mun Yee and Cheong Jun Hoong in the national team so as to continue their legacy.

Malaysia Swimming (MS) secretary Mae Chen said it was not an easy process to bring the divers through the ranks, especially with the current pandemic situation.

Training has been interrupted a few times because of Covid-19 lockdown measures and competitions too have either been postponed or called off.

“Diving is a skilful sport. One cannot jump from one level to another, then stop six months and then hope to come back and continue as usual,” said Mae.

“Their performance will drop and it’s another process to bring them back up again.

“I think perseverance in diving is most important.

“We do have the divers but it has just been difficult the last two years.

“Almost all the junior competitions like Sukma (Malaysia Games), the regional and international age group championships were called off.

“It’s also important for our divers not to give up easily. We do plan to send them for more competitions if the health situation does not change for the worse.

“We will definitely field the juniors for the SEA Games and the World Grand Prix depending on how many events we get to go,” she said.

Among the promising juniors are Bertrand Rhodict and Enrique McCartney Harold (boys); Ong Ker Ying and Elisha Rania Abrial Rajagopal (girls).

Bertrand, Enrique and Elisha are currently training for the platform while Ker Ying is focusing on the springboard.

Mae added the last competition the back-up divers attended were before the Covid-19 pandemic struck.

“We sent the divers to the Asia Pacific and Singapore age-group championships in late 2019 and they came back with impressive results,” said Mae.

“We wanted to send the divers to the world junior championships in Ukraine last month but then, the Omicron variant cases grew and the coaches decided against sending them. We will plan with the coaches again,” she added.