Inaugural OCA diving camp kicks off today

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 15 (Bernama) -- When it comes to diving in the Asian continent, China are a dominant force in the Olympics and world stage, while countries like Japan, South Korea, North Korea and Malaysia somehow can challenge for podium.

However, a majority of the 45 National Olympic Committees (NOCs) under the governance of the Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) are still lagging in the aquatic sport.

In this regard, OCA hopes its inaugural 2022 OCA Asian Diving Youth Camp scheduled from today till Sunday here will help to bridge the gap and develop diving in all regions of Asia.

OCA head of Athletes Development and Special Projects Tony Tarraf said 28 young divers (18 boys, 10 girls), 15 coaches and 17 judges representing 15 NOCs, including Singapore, Iran, Iraq, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and Lebanon, are participating in the camp.

He said OCA has been organising the Asian camp for the last one decade, previously for sports like skateboard, swimming, taekwondo, fencing, rowing and many more.

“This is the first time for diving, aiming to create equal opportunities for divers, coaches and for the first time, includes judges. It combines both educational and technical aspects, with theoretical in the morning and practical at the National Aquatic Centre in the evening, and a small competition on the last day.

“I am not saying that tomorrow they (all countries) will be competing against China or Malaysia, but definitely this is a good first step towards development,” he said after the opening ceremony today.

Meanwhile, course instructor Shannon Roy, who won the 1998 Commonwealth Games gold and World Championship bronze medals, hopes to see other Asian countries emulate Malaysia to challenge the regional powerhouses in the future.

“I would like to see some of the smaller countries stepping up, just like what Malaysia did in the last 10 to 15 years, really coming to the forefront. During the 1998 Commonwealth, Malaysia was just starting, now it is one of the powerhouses.

“It will be great to see Singapore, Thailand or Saudi Arabia do that. It would be really important to see the growth of diving in the whole of Asia and not just in a few countries,” said Shannon, who is coaching Thailand.

Shannon, who represented the Australian junior and senior national teams for 11 years and has about 22 years of coaching experience around the world, also hopes to see countries in Southeast Asia challenging Malaysia’s dominance in the SEA Games.

“Maybe in the next 5-10 years, I want to see Singapore and Thailand able to challenge Malaysia, while Cambodia, Laos and Myanmar are able to send a full team,” he said.

China have been dominating diving since making their debut in the sport at the 1984 Los Angeles, having won a total of 47 gold, 24 silver and 10 bronze medals, including sweeping seven out of eight golds at stake in Tokyo 2020.

Malaysia have won only two Olympic medals – a bronze in 2012 London and silver in 2016 Rio - but have dominated the SEA Games, including making a clean sweep of all eight golds offered at the recent Hanoi Games.

But the exclusion of girls’ events for the upcoming Malaysia Games (Sukma) from Sept 16-24 due to lack of minimum participation has raised eyebrows regarding the development of the sport.

-- BERNAMA