BARCELONA: Malaysia’s Pandelela Rinong-Leong Mun Yee will not get the chance to square off against Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito-Roseline Filion for the Commonwealth Games gold medal in Glasgow next year as the synchro events have been scrapped.
The organisers have surprisingly dropped all four synchro events (men’s and women’s 3m springboard and 10m platform) from the programme.
The divers will only be contesting the individual 3m springboard and 10m platform for both the men and women. It is still not sure whether the individual 1m springboard will be included but the exclusion of the synchro events will be felt by the Malaysian diving team.
Malaysia’s chances are already depleted with platform diver Bryan Nickson Lomas deciding to quit competitive diving recently to focus on his studies. Bryan claimed a bronze at the last Games in New Delhi four years ago and would have been a serious contender for the gold in the 10m individual platform in Glasgow following the retirement of Australian Matthew Mitcham, the 2008 Olympic champion.
Pandelela-Mun Yee surely have a chance to capture the women’s platform synchro gold as they are currently on top of their game with Canada’s Filion-Benfeito,
Britain’s Sarah Barrow-Tania Couch and Australia’s Emily Boyd-Lara Tarvit as their main rivals. Pandelela-Mun Yee edged the Canadians by 0.27 point for their first-ever World Championship bronze medal in Rome in 2009. Ironically, they lost by the same margin in the fight for the silver medal here on Monday.
The Malaysian pair won their first-ever Commonwealth Games silver medal in New Delhi the following year and head coach Yang Zhuliang said it was unfortunate there would be no synchro disciplines in Glasgow.
“Only one pair can enter for the synchro and our chance for a medal in each event is very good. It is not just Pandelela-Mun Yee who stand a chance to fight for the gold. We also have a good chance in the women’s 3m springboard synchro as we can enter either Cheong Jun Hoong with Pandelela or Wendy Ng,” he said.
Jun Hoong-Pandelela finished fifth in the 3m springboard synchro final here last Saturday with only Canadians Jennifer Abel-Pamela Ware, who won the bronze, ranked above them amongst the Commonwealth divers.
Zhuliang said the divers would have to work harder to focus on the individual events in Glasgow.
Pandelela, the Olympic bronze medallist, is the defending champion in the individual 10m platform.
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