WAY OFF: Lomas, Huang finish last in 3m springboard synchro
TWO targets and both were horribly missed as Malaysia's sad story continued at the Aquatics Centre yesterday.Hopes had been high that Bryan Nickson Lomas-Huang Qiang would, after Pandelela Rinong-Leong Mun Yee failed on Tuesday, deliver a 3m springboard synchro medal but the pair fared worse as they finished last in the field of eight.
Just like Pandelela-Mun Yee, the Malaysians were placed third after the second dive but a poor third cost them valuable points and they could not recover.
"The first two dives went according to plan but we executed the third poorly and from there on, we just could not narrow the gap," said Lomas, who is appearing in his third Olympics.
"We are disappointed as we had targeted the bronze here but we tried our best. I suppose it was just not our day," added Bryan, who still has the 10m platform on Aug 10 to look forward to.
Gold, as expected, was won by China's Luo Yotong-Qin Kai who scored a total 477.00 points. Silver went to Ilya Zakharov-Evgeny Kuznetsov (459.63) of Russia while Troy Dumais-Kristian Ipsen (446.70) of the United States took the bronze. The Malaysians scored 405.09.
As Lomas-Huang Qiang do some soul searching, Pandelela is looking to the 10m platform individual on Wednesday to make up for the synchro failure.
It was her second failure, having earlier featured in the 3m springboard synchro with Cheong Jun Hoong but it was the platform in which she and Mun Yee were expected to deliver a medal.
Not only did that fail to materialise, Pandelela-Mun Yee performed poorly to finish seventh and there were as many shocked faces as there were disappointed ones at the Aquatics Centre diving pool.
"We succumbed to nerves and I must say that we have disappointed the fans. We were confident of doing well but when it came to the crunch, we froze," said Pandelela.
The failure, though, has fired up the 19-year-old to fight till the end in the individual event.
"It will be tougher in the individual event as I will have to qualify through the elimination rounds but I want to take something back from the Olympics and it has to be good."
A total of 26 divers will start the competition on Wednesday with only 18 advancing to Thursday's semi-finals, from where 12 will qualify for the final which is scheduled for the same day. The synchro event had only eight pairs qualifying, who all advanced to the final.
To make matters worse, China are likely to take gold and silver, leaving the rest to fight it out for bronze but Pandelela -- who has become accustomed to success, is determined to make her final appearance at the Olympics count and also ensure her London story has a happy ending.
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