National diver Tze Liang wins unexpected gold in men’s 3m springboard
Gold medallist Ooi Tze Liang with silver medallist Jack Laugher (left) and bronze winner Oliver Dingley, both from England, pose on the podium after the men’s 3m springboard final at the Royal Commonwealth Pool in Edinburgh, Scotland. — AFP photos
EDINBURGH: National diver Ooi Tze Liang contributed an unexpected gold medal in the Glasgow Commonwealth Games after winning the men’s 3m springboard final at the Royal Commonwealth Swimming Complex here yesterday.
The 20-year-old diver from Penang collected 457.60 points to beat 1m springboard gold medalist Jack Laugher from England by 7.90 points since the latter managed only 449.70 points while the bronze medal went to Oliver Dingley with 425.20 points.
“I am both happy and satisfied with my performance and the gold medal feat. I must admit that I was very tense at the start but I managed to maintain my focus at the later stages.
“I am glad that I was able to prove to every one that all my hard work and efforts has resulted in a gold medal for the country at the Commonwealth Games,” he added.
Tze Liang said after having completed the morning preliminary round in second place, he was confident of winning a medal.
“From that moment, I had a positive thought to do well in the final round,” said Tze Liang who was introduced to the sport by his father at the age of eight.
Tze Liang, the winner of a silver medal in the 3m springboard synchronised diving at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China four years ago, will next partner Ahmad Amsyar Azman in the men’s 3m springboard synchronised diving which starts today.
Meanwhile, national diving queen Pandelela Rinong Pamg failed to defend the 10m platform gold she had won at the New Delhi Commonwealth Games in India four years ago but winning a silver while nursing an injury is an achievement that everyone can be proud of.
“I am satisfied with the silver medal because I was out of action for a long time due to a knee injury. The injury is getting better but I had to train only from a height of 5m,” she told reporters yesterday.
Pandelela had to rest for three weeks following an injury to her left knee and was in fact a doubtful starter here but she managed to recover in time to train using a height of 5m.
“Hopefully I will be fully fit for the Asian Games next month,” she said.
In the women’s 10m platform individual diving competition held at the Royal Commonwealth Swimming Complex yesterday, Pandelela accumulated 368.55 points, finishing 4.10 points behind gold medal winner Meaghan Benfeito (372.65) from Canada.
The Sarawakian, who had teamed up with Nur Dhabitah Sabri for the first time, competed in the women’s 10m platform synchronised diving on Tuesday and won a bronze medal.
National coach Yang Zhuliang was also proud of Pandelela’s achievement.
“She is a very tough and a determined diver. After she injured herself during the training in China, the doctor advised her to skip training for a month to fully recover.
“But she is a determined diver, after two weeks she came back to train,” said Zhuliang. — Bernama