KUALA LUMPUR: The National Sports Council (NSC) is still hoping that the Malaysian diving squad can contend for a medal at the Paris Olympics from July 26-Aug 11.
Pandelela Rinong-Nur Dhabitah Sabri's failure to secure qualification to Paris in the women's 10-metre platform synchronised event at the Doha World Aquatic Championships on Tuesday is a blow to the nation's hopes of winning a medal in the sport in the Olympics.
The duo were arguably Malaysia's best bet for a diving medal in Paris. So far, only youngster Bertrand Rhodict Lises, 19, has earned Olympic qualification to Paris.
Dhabitah, however, still has a chance of qualifying for Paris in the 3m springboard individual (tomorrow) and synchronised (tonight) with Wendy Ng.
NSC deputy director general Jefri Ngadirin is banking on the duo to make the cut.
"The squad have prepared well, we sent them for a 55-day training camp in China prior to the Doha competition and have given them all the support they needed," said Ngadirin today.
"We will ask Bryan Nickson Lomas (MAS diving technical director) to file a full report on the performances of our platform divers so that we can understand what happened and how to rectify the issues.
"Dhabitah still has a few more chances to qualify.
"Although traditionally we have excelled in the platform discipline, I would not write off our chances of winning a medal in other events.
"Dhabitah finished fourth in the 3m springboard individual event at the
Tokyo Olympics, and we are hoping she can build on that performance and fight for a medal in Paris."
Jefri admitted that it could take up to four years to develop the next generation of divers capable of winning a medal in the women's platform event at the Olympic level.
He said the appointments of Bryan and Khairul Safwan Mansor as diving high performance directors in September were intended to "turn around the sport".
"We were aware that the sport has been in decline since the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth and Hangzhou Asian Games last year," said Jefri.
"This is why we appointed Bryan and Safwan, we wanted to ensure that the sport's development got the attention it needed and is reset.
"They have already prepared a blueprint which we have begun executing.
"We are bringing more divers into the junior programme and are appointing additional coaches to produce more talent.
"In diving, you can accelerate the development of talent by giving the divers more support and more coaches.
"But it will take some time, possibly up to four years before we have divers who can qualify and become contenders in the platform event at the Olympic level.
"We have to place our trust in Bryan to turn around the sport."
Bryan, a former national diver, was the youngest Malaysian, at 14, to qualify for the 2004 Athens Olympics.