FORMER platform specialist Bryan Nickson Lomas can afford a big smile as he looks forward to a return to his former training ground in Kuching today.
The girls’ platform synchro event has not only been reinstated in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) diving competition last week but there will be two new additions to the programme.
The springboard and platform mix synchro events have been added as well, making it a total of 12 to be contested at the Pandelela Rinong Aquatic Centre starting tomorrow.
“We managed to get two additional new events added to the programme at the very last minute.
“Now we have six individual events (1m and 3m springboard and platform) and another six for synchro,’’ said Bryan, who is now the country’s diving technical director.
“This will be the biggest diving programme we have for Sukma and it’s only fitting, given the recognition that Sarawak have produced many top divers for the country.
“It would have been a big shame if there was no girls’ platform synchro event as this is the event where we have been on the world championships podium many times and even given Malaysia an Olympic silver medal (through Pandelela-Cheong Jun Hoong in Rio de Janeiro in 2016).
“This was made possible through loaning of athletes to other states to meet the requirement of having six minimum states agreeing in order for the events to be included.
“It is necessary to come to an agreement as we need to think of the development of the young athletes.
“If there is no Sukma, where are we supposed to gauge our young athletes as we don’t have regular diving competitions unlike sports like badminton and bowling,” said the Olympian.
Bryan added that he, along with high performance manager Khairul Safwan Mansor, will be in Kuching with two other coaches to observe the Sukma diving competition.
“We will be looking at athletes who can be brought into the national junior squad next year. I hope we can find some promising divers, especially girls. We are currently short of female divers, especially for the platform.”
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