WHEN you hire inexperienced coaches to handle a world-class team, you reap what you sow.
This is the sad story of Malaysian diving, a power in the sport that is in decline.
Malaysia are in danger of slipping into mediocrity as our divers emerge from the pool with “nothing to shout about” performances on the international arena this year.
There are now concerns that all the good work started by former National Sports Council (NSC) director-general Datuk Mazlan Ahmad in the 1990s will go down the drain.
The “feel good” bubble of success from Malaysian divers has burst.
We have seen better days: Malaysian divers excelling under former national coach Yang Zhuliang at Olympic, Asian Games, Commonwealth Games and world level.
But when Zhuliang’s contract was not renewed by NSC in December, 2017, it was like removing a big brick from the foundation of the national diving team. Soon, the cracks were appearing.
Though Zhuliang’s assistant, Zhang Yukun continued the job, which he did creditably, the latter decided not to extend his contract last year.
Now, Malaysian diving is put in the hands of a former youth coach, Christian Brooker, and a former club-level trainer, Li Rui. But the duo have failed to continue the good work of their predecessors.
Brooker handled the Australian junior team before he was hired by Malaysia early last year.
Many were surprised by the appointment as Brooker is not a well-known coach while Li Rui was coaching a club in Canada
The NSC and the other powers-that-be must wade in and take the necessary action to get Malaysian diving back on track.
Or else, Malaysian diving will be so diluted that the national team can forget about winning medals in next year’s Tokyo Olympics. Qualifying for the games might even be difficult for some divers.
Timesport highlighted the plight of diving in the country on March 4 but the matter was brushed aside by the Amateur Swimming Union of Malaysia (Asum) the next day.
We are not asking Asum to “walk the plank” but the national body need to explain to the diving fraternity why Malaysia have been doing poorly in the sport of late.
“When you hire inexperienced coaches to handle a world-class team, you will get poor results,” said a reliable source yesterday.
“Zhuliang is one of the best coaches in diving but Malaysia let him go.
“A country usually hires another world class coach to replace their current world class coach, but here we did the opposite.
“I heard that the coach hired recently is not good enough and many divers are unhappy.
“Our divers are not progressing. Some of them have not even upgraded their routines, unlike their rivals.
“We should not talk about Olympic medals next year... I think having a Malaysian land on the moon will be more achievable than winning (gold) in Tokyo.”
Timesport contacted Zhuliang in Australia but the China-born coach did not want to comment much about the sad state of Malaysian diving.
“The recent results clearly show how things are going in Malaysia. I do not want to say much about this,” said Zhuliang.
On Sunday, Nur Dhabitah Sabri saved the national team the blushes by winning a bronze in the women’s 3m springboard individual event in the World Series final leg in London. The team failed to get a medal in the opening four legs.
Credit to Dhabitah for her efforts, but it is a success that Asum can’t really shout about as the world champions from China did not compete this time.
For the record, Malaysia have won medals in every World Series edition since 2010.
Last year, Pandelela Rinong and Cheong Jun Hoong bagged the country’s first title in the World Series by overcoming pairs from China and North Korea in the 10m platform synchro in the Montreal leg. Malaysia also recorded medals in other legs.
As such, many fans had expected the divers to do better this year. However, there have been no signs of that happening.
Jun Hoong’s participation in the World Championships in South Korea in July is also a question mark as the diver has only recently returned to training following right knee surgery.
The Ipoh-born is highly unlikely to defend her world title in the women’s 10m platform individual, which will be a huge setback as the world meet also offers Olympic spots.
Pandelela’s back injury forced her out of the last two legs of the World Series but she was hardly impressive in the earlier stops, failing to make the podium in her platform pet event.
Doing nothing will not help. The concerned parties must act fast to stop the rot in Malaysian diving.