Ken Nee rues Asiad fourth-place finish by divers

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia Aquatics (MAS) diving technical director Yeoh Ken Nee rued Pandelela Rinong and Nur Eilisha Rania Abrar Raj's missed bronze medal after they finished fourth in the women's 10m platform synchro at the Aichi-Nagoya Asian Games on Saturday.

The pair scored 43.80, 40.20, 53.10, 66.99 and 43.20 for a six-dive total of 247.29.

They were just 29.61 points behind South Korea's Kim Na Hyun-Moon Na Yun, who took bronze with 276.90.

After four dives, the Malaysian pair were close to the Koreans and needed a strong final dive to win bronze.

However, Pandelela-Eilisha put up a poor final dive.

Na Hyun-Na Yun, who is coached by former MAS technical director Bryan Nickson Lomas, sealed the bronze with a dive that scored 64.32 points.

China's Chen Yu Xi–Lu Wei won gold with 347.82 points, while North Korea's Jo Jin Mi–Kim Mi Rae took silver with 317.64.

"It's a pity that they missed third place by one position," Ken Nee said when contacted.

Ken Nee said Pandelela was below her best, which affected her scores, but praised Nur Eilisha's performance on her Asian Games debut.

"Eilisha did pretty well for her first Asian Games. Pandelela was a little off this morning, so her scores were a bit low," he said.

"Overall, both did a good job despite a rough start."

Pandelela, a two-time Olympic medallist, won bronze in the event with Nur Dhabitah Sabri at the Hangzhou Games in 2023. She also claimed silver with Leong Mun Yee at Guangzhou 2010 and bronze at Incheon 2014.

Mun Yee partnered Dhabitah to win bronze at the 2018 Jakarta-Palembang Games.