Tough luck: Ooi Tze Liang and Pandelela Rinong (below) in action during the mixed event. — Reuters
PETALING JAYA: Springboard specialist Ooi Tze Liang blew an opportunity to dot his resume with a world championship medal after failing to hold his fifth dive in the team event in Budapest.
Tze Liang and partner Pandelela Rinong were lying in second place after four dives and had looked good for a podium finish but crumbled towards the end on Wednesday.
The mixed team is a combination of the 3m springboard and the 10m platform events, first introduced at the 2015 edition in Kazan.
Tze Liang squandered his chance after only managing 40.25 in the fifth dive.
Pandelela put up a superb effort of 81.60 in the sixth dive but it was not enough to get Malaysia back into the top three medal placings.
The combination only managed 350.25 points to finish fifth in a field of 13 pairs.
The mixed team event was certainly a good chance for Malaysia to secure an additional medal after Pandelela’s bronze feat in the women’s individual 10m platform since it is not an Olympic event and many pairs were competing together for the first time.
Malaysia have also come close in the last two editions.
Leong Mun Yee finished fifth with Ahmad Amsyar Azman in 2017 in Budapest and fourth with Chew Yiwei in Gwangju, South Korea in 2019.
Wendy Ng Yan Yee missed out on a medal in two finals yesterday.
She finished seventh with Mohd Syafiq Puteh in the mixed 3m springboard and eighth with Syafiq in the mixed 3m springboard synchro.
“This was my best chance to get a world championship medal. We were in medal position at one point but we just could not maintain it,” said Wendy.
“Maybe it’s not my luck to get a world championship medal in my career. It’s okay, I will focus on the 3m springboard synchro (with Nur Dhabitah Sabri) after this,” added the Rio Olympian finalist Wendy.
Pandelela-Dhabitah finished sixth in the women’s 10m platform synchro preliminary with 270.90 points.
China’s Quan Hongchan-Chen Yuxi topped the qualifying field for the final with 352.08 points ahead of American pair Delaney Schnell-Katrina Young (296.28) and Germans Elena Wassen-Christina Wassen (281.88).
