LEONG Mun Yee and Pandelela Rinong can create history in the women's 10m platform synchro at the Diving World Cup which starts on Saturday in Tokyo.
Malaysia have never won a title at the World Cup but there are great expectations on Mun Yee-Pandelela, who finished as silver medallists at the 2019 World Championships.
Having booked their tickets to the Tokyo Olympics, Mun Yee-Pandelela will be out to fine tune their performance at the twice-delayed World Cup.
The absences of top contenders from China, North Korea and Australia should benefit the Malaysian camp.
China are sending only their backup divers while North Korea and Australia have pulled out due to concerns over Covid-19.
Mun Yee-Pandelela's main rivals are likely to be Meaghan Benfeito (Canada's three-time Olympic medallist), who partners Caeli McKay.
Mun Yee, 36, is not reading too much into the absences of her rivals.
"Our aim is to see where we stand now as we did not have the chance to compete in the World Series this year."
"This is our first competition after more than a year, and it's also going to be the only one for everyone before the Olympics,"
The 10-member Malaysian squad, who arrived in Tokyo on Monday, cleared Covid screening before entering a bubble environment.
"There were a lot of checks and a lot of documents to process as well as Covid-19 swab test.
"We only arrived at the hotel at 8pm despite taking a 7.10am flight," said Malaysia Swimming secretary general Mae Chen who is also the team manager.
"The good thing is that the team passed the screening upon arrival.
"We were the only ones who wore face masks and face shields during the entire flight.
"The organisers were also nice enough to allow us to have 20 minutes of stretching even though we were not scheduled to train," added Mae.
The Malaysians, who had a day's rest, will train today before the competition begins on Saturday.