RIO DE JANEIRO: Divers Cheong Jun Hoong and Pandelela Rinong won Malaysia’s first medal at the Rio Olympic Games after clinching silver in the women’s 10m platform synchronised on Tuesday.
Jun Hoong-Pandelela scored a total 344.34 points to finish second behind China’s Chen Ruolin-Liu Huixia (354.00).
Third were Canada’s Meaghan Benfeito-Roseline Filion with 336.18 points.
The Malaysians had an outing to remember as they were never out of the medal places in all five dives.
They were placed joint-second after the first two dives, third after the third dive and back into second after the fourth, a position which they didn’t relinquish.
“We are so proud to have won Malaysia’s first medal at this Olympics,” said Pandelela, 23.
“There was pressure but we told ourselves to keep calm and focus on doing what we had been doing in training. I am so glad that our hard work has paid off,” added the 2012 London Olympics bronze medallist.
For Jun Hoong, the silver was the perfect balm after missing out on a medal in the 3m springboard synchronised with Nur Dabitah Sabri on Sunday.
“I told myself to forget what had happened in the 3m event and to focus on the 10m platform. Every day is a new day and my focus was on performing in the 10m platform,” said Jun Hoong, 26.
Both still have work to do as they will be competing in the 10m platform individual on Aug 17 while Jun Hoong will also be competing in the 3m springboard on Friday.