KUALA LUMPUR: Pandelela Rinong has achieved almost everything in diving, winning medals from the Olympic Games to the World Championships.
However, the platform specialist is hungry for more. The Sarawakian wants to finish on the podium at the Hangzhou Asian Games from Sept 23-Oct 8, and qualify for next year's Paris Olympics.
Pandelela, who has featured in four Olympic editions, did not win a medal at the 2018 Jakarta Asian Games but made amends by becoming the first Malaysian to win a World Cup title in the 10m individual platform at the 2021 Tokyo edition.
She has won two Olympic medals — a bronze in the individual platform at the 2012 London edition and a silver in the synchro four years later in Rio.
However, Pandelela hopes the Road To Gold (RTG) project will focus on bringing back more consistent support services to national athletes ahead of the Paris Olympics.
Pandelela said the support services, such as the sports science team she enjoyed in the 2012 and 2016 Olympic editions, helped her win medals.
"I hope, after this, the support services will be more consistent. Not sometimes available and at other times not. In London and Rio, we had our masseurs and sports biomechanics staff, but for Tokyo 2020, there were none (support services).
"I am not getting any younger. While other divers need video analysis during training and competitions, it would be difficult to record consistent results without proper support services.
"There were many National Sports Council (NSC) staff who came to cheer us during the Tokyo Olympics, but there were no National Sports Institute staff," said Pandelela, who featured in her first competition this year at the Malaysia Invitational Age Group Championships at National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil today.
Only three athletes took part in the event, and she won individual platform title with 326.05 points.
However, it was not an impressive score, which was 140 points less than China's Quan Hongchan when she won the Olympic title in Tokyo 2020.
Sarawak's Elisha Rania, who will make her Sea Games debut in Phnom Penh next month, finished second on 235.00, followed by Singapore's Ong Rei En (208.25).
Pandelela is skipping the Sea Games to prepare for the World Cup in Montreal from May 5-7 and the World Championships in Fukuoka on July 14-30.
"It feels good to return to the pool for my first competition. I just want to regain my competition feeling ahead of overseas events.
"I hope to do my best in these competitions. The juniors will compete in the Sea Games."The diving calendar has fewer competitions compared with before Covid 19.
"I want to win a medal at the Asian Games and do well enough at the world championships to qualify for the Paris Olympics.
Pandelela will compete in the individual and synchro (with Nur Dhabitah Sabri) platform events in Fukuoka.