BIRMINGHAM: One bad dive - an inward 3 1/2 somersaults in their fourth attempt - was all it took to deny Malaysians Pandelela Rinong-Nur Dhabitah Sabri a bronze medal by a whisker in the women's 10-metre platform synchronised event of the Commonwealth Games at the Sandwell Aquatics Centre yesterday.
Heading into the fourth dive in second spot overall, the pair fluffed their lines and could only collect 41.28 points to drop to sixth and last position with a total of 211.08 points.
Although they recovered to score 75.84 points – the highest of their five dives – it was only enough for them to move up two spots to finish fourth with a 286.92 total – just 0.96-point short of third-placed Robyn Birch-Emily Martin (287.88) of Australia.
The Malaysians began on a slow note, gaining 48.60 points in the first dive to be placed fourth before moving up to second when they scored 51.00 in the second dive for a 99.60 total.
Pandelela-Nur Dhabitah, the World Aquatics Championships bronze medallists in Budapest recently, stayed in second spot after the third dive when they garnered 70.20 points for a 169.80 total.
They were looking good for at least a silver at that point.
Then, disaster struck.
Australia's Charli Petrov-Melissa Wu also had a bad dive in their fourth attempt but still managed to lead all the way to clinch gold with 306 points while England's Eden Cheng-Andrea Spendoloni Siriex took silver with 298.86 points.
Pandelela, however, said she did not regret missing another opportunity to bring home the gold medal as she felt that her dives were gradually getting better following a dismal show on Thursday, which saw her finishing 11th in the women's 10m platform individual event.
"I am feeling better than Thursday's dive and actually I was just hoping to dive like usual as per my training. But in sports, you win some and you lose some. You just have to take it positively and move forward," she said.
Nur Dhabitah, who won silver with Wendy Ng Yan Yee in the women's 3m springboard synchronised earlier yesterday, said she was grateful to have such an understanding partner like Pandelela, especially after she could not produce some clean dives in today's final.
"What to do… it's not meant to be. I admit that some of my dives were not good. I can't be too disappointed as things happened and we can't turn back time. It's time to move forward, train and improve," she said.
Pandelela will have one last chance to prove her mettle when she competes in the mixed synchronised 10m platform with Jellson Jabillin on Monday (Aug 8).
Nur Dhabitah, meanwhile, will compete in the women's 3m springboard individual today and the mixed synchronised 3m springboard with Syafiq Puteh on the final day of the Games tomorrow.