KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 7 -- Despite her less than encouraging results in the recently-concluded Malaysia International Online Diving Championships, 2017 world champion Cheong Jun Hoong is just thankful to have been able to compete.
The virtual meet is, after all, her first competitive outing after more than two years when she took part in the World Cup in Wuhan, China in June 2018. The Ipoh-born diver then underwent knee surgery before the COVID-19 pandemic resulted in the cancellation and postponements of various championships,
That could partly explain why the 30-year-old failed to qualify for the women’s 10m platform finals after finishing last among four divers, only managing to score 237.05 points.
“I am not happy with the result, but I’m glad I completed my dives as this meet was not included in my plans. (My) Coach Yang Zhuliang is backing me to improve my performance.
“I am also happy to push myself for the technical dives in such a short period because there are critics who said that I can’t dive anymore. I have shown that I still can dive regardless of the results,” she told Bernama.
The two-day online diving meet, hosted by Malaysia Swimming, also featured divers from Australia, New Zealand, Singapore and Japan.
Jun Hoong, who won the 10m synchronised platform silver medal with Pandela Rinong at the 2016 Rio Olympics, believes that training in China had helped her regain her form faster because she could only train for three hours a day at Bukit Jalil during the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) period in the Klang Valley.
“If can, I want to train overseas... that would be the best, but we can’t go anywhere now (due to the pandemic). This is because the facilities in China are better and training is centralised,” she explained.
According to early planning, Jun Hoong is expected to begin the 2021 season by competing in the FINA World Diving Series in Zhuhai, China from Feb 26-28 as a warm-up for the Tokyo World Cup (April 18-23), which is also the final Olympic qualifier.
However, that will depend on the COVID-19 situation then.
-- BERNAMA
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