PETALING JAYA: Former Olympic springboard finalist Yeoh Ken Nee (pic) looks set to embrace a new challenge after the Chinese New Year celebration is over.
It is learnt that Ken Nee will be announced as the new technical director for the national diving team soon.
His former springboard synchro partner Bryan Nickson Lomas resigned from the post last week and the National Sports Council (NSC) have already finalised their choice for the position.
Ken Nee, 41 and a father of two, ticked all the boxes needed to head the team having been involved in the sport for the most part of his life.
In fact, he was in the pioneer batch of divers recruited to start full-time training for the first time under Jaya 98 programme back in 1995.
Ken Nee competed as a 15-year-old at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur and is a trailblazer in the sport.
He was the first male diving gold medallist for Malaysia, sweeping the men’s 3m springboard and 10m platform individual titles at the 1999 Brunei SEA Games.
Ken Nee was also the first Malaysian to stand on the Commonwealth Games podium for diving 19 years ago – grabbing silver in the men’s 1m springboard individual in Melbourne (2006). Ken Nee, who is from Kuala Lumpur, also made Olympic history for Malaysia as the first male diver to qualify for the final, finishing 10th in the men’s 3m springboard individual event in London in 2012.
He retired from competitive diving after the London Olympics and eventually went into coaching.
He is also a qualified international judge and last year made the nation proud as one of the few from Asia to get picked to judge the Paris Olympics diving competition.
Another sign that points to his confirmation as the incoming technical director is that he had just relinquished his position as the head coach for Federal Territories (FT) diving team.
FT together with Sarawak were the only states who had gold medallists in diving at the Malaysia Games (Sukma) in Sarawak last year.
FT claimed three while the rest were won by Sarawak.
Ken Nee, when contacted, did not elaborate further but confirmed that he was among those approached by the NSC on taking over the technical director position from Bryan.
“I can’t say much at this point. Let NSC and Malaysia Swimming Federation (MSF) make the announcement on who takes over from my former partner,” he said.
The main assignments for the diving team this year will be the World Championships in Singapore (July 11-Aug 3) and the Thailand SEA Games (Dec 9-20).
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