KUALA LUMPUR: The special trial to select two female 10m platform divers for next month's Tokyo World Cup is off as judges are unable to travel to Malaysia.
However, two-time Olympic medallist Pandelela Rinong has done former world champion Cheong Jun Hoong a favour by deciding to withdraw from the women's platform individual event in Tokyo.
With her decision to withdraw, Jun Hoong and Nur Dhabitah Sabri will be registered for the event.
Pandelela qualified for the Olympics in the event after finishing fifth at last year's World Championships in South Korea.
The trial, scheduled March 27, was supposed to pit Pandelela, Jun Hoong and Nur Dhabitah for the two available World Cup slots.
The World Cup, on April 21-26, offers 18 Olympic berths in the individual events.
The judges, seven in all from Thailand, Hong Kong, Macau and Europe, for the trial were unavailable to commit due to the Covid-19 epidemic.
Asum secretaey Mae Chen said: "It's a problem for the judges as they will have to serve a two-week quarantine period after returning home."
Mae said Pandelela has agreed to drop the platform individual event from her Tokyo schedule.
"I thank Pandelela for offering an opportunity to her teammates to try and win the Olympic spot," Mae added.
Jun Hoong is currently training in Dongguan, China under former national coach Yang Zhuliang.
For the record, Jun Hoong has not competed in tournaments since June 2018 after injuring her knee.
With the latest development, Pandelela will only compete in the platform synchro event with Leong Mun Yee.
The pair sealed their Olympic berth after winning a silver at last year's World Championships.