The Star Online: Sports
The Star Online: Sports |
- Pandelela doubtful for Asian meet due to left ankle injury
- Ex-national swimmer Chii Lin shows her mettle with four-gold display
- Thorpe-do fires away
| Pandelela doubtful for Asian meet due to left ankle injury Posted: 31 Oct 2012 07:06 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Diver Pandelela Rinong is a doubtful starter for the Asian Championships in Dubai from Nov 22-25 because of a left ankle injury. Head coach Yang Zhuliang said the 19-year-old Olympic bronze medallist sustained the injury in training recently and it has prevented her from executing the full somersault routines. "Pandelela cannot jump without putting stress on her ankles ... she is not doing the full somersault routines. "She has, however, shown signs of improvement today but I want to see her condition first before making a decision next week. "It's the end of the year and I do not want to push any diver if they are not in good condition. "There is still a week left before we have to sumbit the final squad list for the Asian meet," said Zhuliang, who signed a two-year contract extension to handle the national squad last week. If Pandelela stays back, then her partner Leong Mun Yee will also be ruled out of the women's 10m synchro platform. Malaysia are not sending a big squad to Dubai as London Olympian Traisy Vivien Tukiet, Jasmine Lai and Lam Ling Kar will be sitting for the SPM examinations this month. The ones shortlisted are Bryan Nickson Lomas, Ooi Tze Liang, Chew Yiwei, Cheong Jun Hoong and Wendy Ng Yan Yee. Zhuliang is not putting high hopes on the divers to shine as they did not undergo the kind of intensive preparations in the run-up to the London Olympics. "The divers are only training here and preparations are not as good as if we had sent them to China," said Zhuliang. "Our facilities here are adequate for normal routines ... not for high-intensity training, which our divers need if they are to fight for medals. "China, I understand, are also sending their national divers and will start as favourites." The Asian meet, held every two years, also includes swimming, synchro swimming and waterpolo. |
| Ex-national swimmer Chii Lin shows her mettle with four-gold display Posted: 31 Oct 2012 07:10 PM PDT KUALA LUMPUR: Former Olympic swimmer Leung Chii Lin does not regret her decision to step away from the national team earlier this year, having achieved everything she set out for. The 21-year-old stamped her mark as a junior with a clean sweep of 12 gold medals when she made her first appearance at the MSSM (national schools) meet years ago before going on to establish herself as one of the country's top woman swimmers. Sabah-born Chii Lin said that getting to swim at the Beijing Olympics in 2008 was her ultimate goal. "As a swimmer, you want to be able to say you swam at the Olympics before and I think that was the most I could aim for realistically ... the highlight of my career. "I've achieved everything else, to swim at the World Championships (Rome in 2009); SEA Games (Korat in 2007, Laos in 2009 and Palembang in 2011); Commonwealth Games (New Delhi in 2010); and Asian Games (in Guangzhou in 2010). "And I never neglected my studies, not even when I was still swimming ... and that hasn't changed. "I do not regret quitting the national team at all," said Chii Lin, who finished 48th out of a field of 90 when she swam the 50m freestyle at the Beijing Olympics. Chii Lin showed that she is still a swimmer to be reckoned when she contributed two gold medals to her alma mater at the National Higher Education and Institution Games (Sukipt) the at National Aquatic Centre in Bukit Jalil yesterday. Chii Lin, who is a second year Sports Science student at Universiti Malaya, won gold in the women's 50m breaststroke and the 4x200m freestyle relay team. She also claimed a silver in the 50m butterfly final behind fellow Sabahan Chui Lai Kwan. Chii Lin has collected four gold medals so far, having triumphed in the 100m freestyle and 100m breaststroke on Tuesday. Former national swimmer Lai Kwan continued to make a big splash by romping to three more gold medals, bringing her tally to six after two days of competition. Lai Kwan, swimming for Universiti Putra Malaysia, won the 200m freestyle, 200m individual medley and 50m butterfly. |
| Posted: 31 Oct 2012 04:11 PM PDT SYDNEY: Swimming legend Ian Thorpe admits he is a nerdy bookworm who hardly fits the stereotype of an Australian sportsman, but says rumours he is gay are simply not true. Launching his autobiography "This is Me" yesterday, the five-time Olympic gold medallist opened up about his battle with depression and his failure to qualify for the London Games in his much-anticipated comeback. "This is a very different book than I intended," said Thorpe, now 30, adding that it was supposed to be the story of someone who got back in the pool and achieved "the success he had in the past". "Unfortunately ... it didn't turn out that way. I didn't qualify for the Olympics and I didn't have the ending that I anticipated and also hoped for." Thorpe, who won his first world title at the age of 15 and was just 17 when he first won Olympic gold, grew up in the media spotlight, and said from the age of 20 he sometimes felt like leaving the sport. He held on to sensationally quit swimming at the age of 24, and writes in the book that he knew he was retiring prematurely and could have achieved more but was "bitter with the constant pursuit, accusations and innuendo". On his sexuality, he writes: "I accept there's nothing else I can say or do. "There'll always be people who are sceptical; people who want me to be gay, and others who'll try and use it against me. "It should have been over and done with a long time ago but people have remained obsessed with it and need to find an explanation which suits their perspective." He said he finds the fact that people question what he is saying hurtful. "I think it's because I don't fit into the typical stereotype of ... what Australian athletes have been in the past," he told ABC television. "I guess I behave differently. I'm a nerd; I'm just someone that happened to be good at sport as well." Thorpe said that he realised "something wasn't quite right" when he was in his mid-teens, but at the time did not know it was depression. He sought help but admits in the book he occasionally turned to alcohol. Thorpe says he is happy and healthy now, but is intrigued by the possibility of a link between depression and elite sport. "I think there may be some reason that athletes actually turn to sport because I think the benefits of exercise in relation to managing depression is a really positive thing," he told AFP. "Then you can look at the environmental factors that could contribute to it being worse which is that high pressure elite side of sport. "But when I talk about depression or anxiety, I'm actually at my best when I compete." Thorpe has not yet achieved his hoped for success in his comeback, made after four years out of the sport, but is still swimming and hopes to qualify for the 2013 world championships in Barcelona. — AFP |
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