World Champ Rousseau's Simple Tip Gets Elvis All Shook Up

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 14 (Bernama) -- Sometimes, all that a young athlete needs to up his or her game is a little encouragement from the established stars.

And that's exactly what happened to young national diver Elvis Priestly Clement.

Elvis has credited the words of wisdom he received from reigning men’s 10 metre (m) platform world champion Cassiel Rousseau of Australia recently for opening his eyes to the importance of having a strong mentality.

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Elvis, who made his World Aquatics Championships debut in Singapore recently, revealed that Rousseau simply advised him to ‘enjoy the game’ when dealing with pressure at the highest level.

The 18-year-old Elvis said the brief but valuable encounter with the two-time world champion occurred during mealtime with other Malaysian divers at the world meet.

"We asked him how he dealt with pressure… because we are quite weak in terms of mentality. As for techniques, we can still learn and improve. He (Rousseau) told us to just enjoy the game… that's it.

"I feel like my confidence level (after the 2025 World Aquatics Championships) has improved because I was a bag of nerves in competitions previously,” he told reporters when met at the 60th Malaysia Invitational Age Group Diving Championships at the National Aquatic Centre, Bukit Jalil, here today.

Earlier today, he struck gold in the men’s 3m springboard with a score of 365.70 points, with Kuala Lumpur divers Nurqayyum Nazmi Mohamad Nazim (353.85 points) and Yong Rui Jie (352.10 points) settling for silver and bronze respectively.

Despite making his world meet debut, Elvis was, without a doubt, Malaysia's best diver in Singapore.

The 2024 Malaysia Games (SUKMA) gold medallist not only qualified for the semi-finals of the men’s 10m platform, but also partnered Enrique Maccartney Harold to a seventh placing in the men’s 10m platform synchronised, the highest-ever finish by a Malaysian pair at the World Championships.

Sarawakian Elvis said he was satisfied with his performance in the Malaysia Invitational despite an injury on the left side of his waist, which he sustained during training last week.

He is keeping his fingers crossed that he will be injury-free when he competes in the Asian Aquatics Championships 2025 in Ahmedabad, India, from Oct 1-15, followed by his maiden SEA Games appearance in the 2025 edition in Thailand from Dec 9-20.

Meanwhile, Enrique proved his mettle by claiming the men’s platform gold medal with 377.20 points, edging Olympian Bertrand Rhodict Lises (374.75 points) and Sabah’s Muhd Anilrian Normatrud Abdullah (347.65 points).

In the women’s platform, 2023 SEA Games gold medallist Lee Yiat Qing bagged gold with 283.25 points as Sarawak’s Nur Elisha Rania Muhammad Abrar Raj (265.60 points) took silver while her teammate, Nur Farisya Alia Affendi (231.25 points), settled for bronze.

-- BERNAMA