Malaysia's Enrique Harold competes in the preliminary round of the men's 10m platform diving event during the 2024 World Aquatics Championships at Hamad Aquatics Centre in Doha on February 9, 2024. (Photo by SEBASTIEN BOZON / AFP)
PETALING JAYA: Malaysian divers began their World Championships campaign on a quiet note, finishing 16th in the mixed team event and could only watch as Asian Games rival Japan pulled off a stunning feat in Singapore. Malaysia, fielding Enrique Harold Maccartney, Elvis Priestly Clement, Pandelela Rinong and Lee Yiat Qing, garnered a total of 322.55 points at the OCBC Aquatic Centre yesterday. A total of 21 nations took part in the team event where the divers had to perform dive routines in the 3m springboard and 10m platform. It was a tough ask for Malaysia to claw their way into the top 10 after the first diver Yiat Qing only managed to earn 36.45 points for her first dive from the 10m platform. Platform diver Elvis put up an impressive 67.50 for the next dive but Malaysia struggled to catch up after that. On the other hand, Japan pulled off a shocking feat by grabbing bronze with 409.65 points. China, fielding three Olympic champions in Chen Yiwen, Chen Yuxi and Cao Yuan, topped the field with 466.25 points with Mexico taking the silver with 426.30 points. It is only the second medal for Japan in world championships diving. Rikuto Tamai claimed silver in the men's 10m platform at the 2022 world meet edition in Budapest, Hungary. Yiat Qing and Elvis will partner each other for the mixed 10m platform synchro event today while Nurqayyum Nazmi Mohd Nazim and Yong Rui Jie will compete in the men's 1m springboard preliminary event. Malaysia's top swimmer Khiew Hoe Yean will bid to shake off jet-lag to clock another fast time in the men's 400m freestyle heats today. It will be very tough for Hoe Yean to get a second swim as only the top eight will make it to the final. However, the SEA Games champion swimmer will surely try his best to go near his new national record of 3:48.36s, which he just set to claim silver for Malaysia at the World University Games in Germany last week. Bryan Leong and Andrew Goh will also be competing in the men's 50m butterfly and 100m breaststroke heats today.
