PANDELELA Rinong missed her chance of becoming the No 1 ranked diver on the World Series after she finished fifth with 364.00 points in the 10m platform individual in the fourth leg at Moscow Olympic Arena yesterday.
The result meant her unbroken medal run on the series also came to an end. Poor scores on the second and third attempts (69.60 and 68.80) meant she was never in a position to add to the two silver and one bronze earned from the previous legs in Beijing, Dubai and London.
Pandelela, however, managed to up her performance by posting 72.00 and 81.60 in the remaining rounds but it was too late to make the podium.
Britain’s Tonia Couch finished ahead of the Malaysian in fourth with 371.40 points while Ukraine’s Yulia Prokopchuk garnered 380.10 for third position.
China’s Liu Huixia, who finished fourth in last weekend’s London leg, posted a world class score of 411.40 points, edging compatriot and reigning Olympic champion Chen Ruolin (397.45) for the first time in the competition.
National coach Yang Zhuliang was expecting a better performance from Pandelela after she topped the semi-final with 359.70 points.
“I think Pandelela is tired and also she did not want to have any injuries. She, however, needs to improve ahead of the Commonwealth Games as the challenge to defend her title will come not only from Canada but also divers from Britain,” said Zhuliang yesterday.
Cheong Jun Hoong became only the second Malaysian after Pandelela to qualify for an individual final at the series on Saturday.
The Sea Games champion made the six-diver field final in the 3m springboard after finishing second (313.50) behind China’s Wang Han in the first semi-final.
However, Jun Hoong flopped her fourth dive, earning only 40.50, to finish last on 295.85.
Reigning world champion He Zi of China won the event with 377.40 points ahead of compatriot Wang Han (362.40) and Italy’s Tania Cagnotto (353.00).
Wendy Ng, who had partnered Jun Hoong to take bronze in the 3m springboard synchro on Friday, did not qualify for the final in the same event, finishing sixth in the second semi-final (305.10).
Comments are closed.