No major splash... but Bertrand and Hoe Yean make waves for Malaysia

PETALING JAYA: It was a year when Malaysia returned home empty-handed from the World Aquatics Championships for the first time since 2009 but the disappointment was tempered by the emergence of young diving star Bertrand Rhodict.

The diving team have never failed to bring back a medal in the world meet since Pandelela Rinong-Leong Mun Yee splashed to a historic bronze medal in 2009 in Rome.

At this edition in Japan, Malaysia suffered setbacks when experienced Pandelela had to miss the women’s 10m platform synchro after partner Nur Dhabitah Sabri sustained a wrist injury.

The pair had bagged bronze at the 2022 stint in Budapest, Hungary.

Misfortune further struck Pandelela when she was eliminated in the preliminary round of the women’s 10m platform after missing out on the top 18.

She finished 24th out of 36 divers and returned home with her worst performance at the world meet.

But to her credit, the veteran diver from Sarawak redeemed herself by bagging two bronze medals at the Hangzhou Asian Games two months later.

Bertrand, however, unexpectedly, became the new diving star at the world meet after punching his way to an early Olympic ticket by finishing 10th in the men’s 10m platform individual event.

He became the first Malaysian athlete to qualify for Paris Olympics and assured a male representative in diving after having none in the men’s competition at the last Olympics in Tokyo.

Malaysia also had a decent show in diving at the Asian Games in Hangzhou, returning with five medals – one silver and four bronzes.

The sole silver came from Dhabitah-Wendy Ng Yan Yee in the women’s 3m springboard synchro event.

Winds of change also saw new office bearers taking over Malaysia Swimming Federation (MSF) in May with long-serving secretary Mae Chen making way for Andy Low, who has previously served as diving team manager for many competitions.

Olympians and national swimmers Marilyn Chua and Nurul Huda Abdullah also made it into the governing body.

Olympian Bryan Nickson Lomas has also been roped in as the technical director for diving and he has been kept busy with things over the last three months.

Said Bryan: “We want to revive the states which have been inactive. There are about seven or eight states who are active and we want to expand on this.

“We are currently facing a shortage of coaches at all levels. The ratio of coaches-to-athletes is very important. Sarawak have about six coaches with them, which is why their programme has been so successful.

On the swimming front, the highlight of the year was Khiew Hoe Yean’s feat in erasing the 32-year-old national record held by former Olympian and Asian Games silver medallist swimmer Jeffrey Ong.

Hoe Yean clocked 15:21.92s to win silver in the men’s 17 and over 1,500m freestyle final at the Queensland Swimming Championships in Brisbane earlier this month to erase the time of 15:23.61s held by Jeffrey since 1991.