Pandelela finishes sixth in pet event in World Cup
KUALA LUMPUR: Diver Pandelela Rinong’s hopes of earning a strong end to the year evaporated after she could only finish sixth in the women’s 10m platform individual final at the Diving World Cup in Berlin.
The 29-year-old’s drastic decline of form was all too apparent as she lost her focus to only settle for 263.45 total in the final on Saturday.
It was a poor effort from the Sarawakian who had started the competition brightly by scoring 304.25 to place third in the preliminaries on Thursday.
In fact, Pandelela was third after the first three dives and had looked on course for a podium finish,
But poor scores of 32.00 and 38.40 in the fourth and fifth dive saw Pandelela, last year’s World Cup winner, tumble out of the medal contention.
China’s reigning world champion Chen Yuxi took the gold with a whooping total of 449.85 points, while compatriot Quan Hongchan, the reigning Olympic gold medallist, settled for silver with 430.43.
United States’ Nike Agunbiade, a relative newcomer, took the bronze with a distant score of 298.70.
But there will be questions regarding Pandelela’s ability to compete consistently in the long run as she has certainly experienced a mixed bag of results ever since she won the historic World Cup gold last year.
She endured a torrid Tokyo Olympic campaign last year before bouncing back to grab two bronze medals at the World Championships in July only to fall flat during the Commonwealth Games in August.
For now, Pandelela still has a chance to redeem herself as she competes in the mixed team event alongside Chew Yiwei and Bertrand Rhodict.
With only five teams competing, there is certainly a chance yet to finish with a medal.
Meanwhile Yiwei put up a decent showing in the men’s 3m springboard individual final but could only finish sixth.
He tallied a total of 375.75 in the final on Friday while China’s Wang Zongyuan (562.20) took the gold with compatriot Cao Yuan (513.85) and Germany’s Moritz Wesemann (432.40) finishing second and third respectively.
NST
