SHAH ALAM, 1 Aug: National diver, Ooi Tze Liang, brought cheer to the national contingent when he successfully increased Malaysia’s gold medals at the 20th Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.
In the men’s 3 metre springboard finals which took place at the Royal Commonwealth Pool, the 20-year-old diver from Penang managed to collect 457.60 points to win the gold medal.
7.90 points behind Tze Liang was the one metre springboard gold medallist, Jack Laugher from England with 449.70 points and the bronze medal went to fellow Brit, Oliver Dingley with 425.20 points.
“I am both happy and satisfied with my performance and the gold medal feat. I must admit that I was very tense at the start but I managed to maintain my focus at the later stages.
“I am glad that I was able to prove to everyone that all my hard work and efforts has resulted in a gold medal for the country at the Commonwealth Games,” he said, quoted from Bernama.
Tze Liang said after having completed the morning preliminary round in second place, he was confident of winning a medal.
“From that moment I had a positive thought to do well in the final round,” said Tze Liang who was introduced to the sport by his father at the age of eight.
Tze Liang, the winner of a silver medal in the 3m Springboard Synchronized diving at the Asian Games in Guangzhou, China four years ago will next partner Ahmad Amsyar Azman in the men’s 3m Springboard Synchronized diving which starts tomorrow.
“Based on our performance today, I believe that we will provide the best competition,” said the silver medallist in the Asian Games for the synchronised three-metre springboard with Bryan Nickson Lomas in Guangzhou four years ago.
Meanwhile, Pandelela Rinong only managed to win a silver medal for the women’s 10m individual platform at the 20th Commonwealth Games.
Meanwhile, the national men’s singles badminton player, Chong Wei Feng, is on the right track in continuing his legacy in defending the gold medal at the 20th Commonwealth Games at the Emirates Arena.
As the top seed, Weng Feng took 29 minutes to set aside his challenger, Tony Stephenson from Northern Ireland in straight sets; 21-15 and 21-10, in the third match.
Wei Fend is scheduled to meet R V Gurusaidutt from India in the next match on Friday.
Apart from Wei Feng, another national singles player, Liew Daren, also qualified for the quarter-finals after defeating D Karunaratna from Sri Langka in straight sets; 21-19 and 21-12, in 37 minutes.
Liew is scheduled to meet K Parupalli from India in the quarter-finals on Friday.
For the record, the most successful singles players who won gold medals six times in a row at the Commonwealth Games are Rashid Sidek in 1990 and 1994, Wong Choo Hann (1998), Hafiz Hashim (2002) and Datuk Lee Chong Wei in the 2006 and 2010 editions.
Meanwhile, Tee Jing Yi easily defeated her rival N Murukkuwadura from Sri Langka with 21-9 and 21-6 to advance to the quarter-finals for the women’s singles.
Tee is up against P C Thulasi from India in the semi-finals.
NS
