Start divers young to catch up with China

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Diving coach Yang says age 13 too late to match world-class field

KUALA LUMPUR: To get Malaysian divers on par with diving powerhouse China, they should be polished from a young age, said national diving coach Yang Zhuliang.

“When I was with the national team of China, there were divers as young as 14 years who had already participated in world championships.

“But here, we started very slow, as most of them only recently joined the Bukit Jalil Sports School at age 13 and then have to practice slowly due to the limited training facilities,” he said.

 

Yang said the number of divers who qualified for the Rio de Janeiro Olympics is still considered small and Malaysia could have more opportunities if there was a larger pool.

“We have to start now if we want to get a better result at the Tokyo Olympics in 2020, actually we cannot rest,” said the coach who is now a permanent resident of Malaysia.

Yang noted that in Tokyo, every participating country would want to beat China, including Malaysia.

“They (China) proved that they are very strong in the event. We have to start from now (training programme) if we want to beat them,” he said.

Yang noted that the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) had granted 10 days of leave for the Olympics divers.

However, for coaches, Yang said they cannot have a long rest as they still have back-up divers to train. — Bernama