HANOI, May 11 — National diver Nur Dhabitah Sabri believes that “God’s hands were at work” in ensuring she enjoyed a perfect start and end to her appearance at the 31st SEA Games here.
The 22-year-old from Kuala Lumpur is grateful for the way things have panned out for her here, starting with her bagging the first gold medal offered at the Hanoi SEA Games when she emerged triumphant in the women’s 1-metre (m) springboard individual on Sunday (May 8).
Today, which is the last day of the diving competition, saw her combining with Datuk Pandelela Rinong to help Malaysia complete a clean sweep of all eight gold medals on offer in diving.
Pandelela – Nur Dhabitah clinched the gold medal in the women’s 10m platform synchronised with a total of 292.14 points at the Aquatics Sports Palace here.
The gold was Pandelela’s ninth at the biennial Games since she made her debut at the 2007 edition in Korat and Nur Dhabitah’s sixth overall.
And, to cap it all off perfectly, Nur Dhabitah will be the flag bearer at the official opening ceremony of the 31st edition of the SEA Games tomorrow.
No wonder she attributes the perfect sequence of events to the wonders of the Almighty.
“I feel like God has arranged my journey here beautifully… Being chosen as the flag bearer, getting the first gold for Malaysia and ending the diving competition with a gold as well.
“I feel that we managed to achieve the SEA Games target of a clean sweep through the sheer hard work of all the divers, although we also faced many challenges along the way,” she told reporters here today.
In today’s women’s 10m platform synchronised, Singaporean twins Ong Sze En – Ong Rei En (225.42 points) took silver while Vietnam’s Bui Thị Hong Giang – Mai Hong Hanh (185.25 points) finished empty-handed as only three teams took part in the event.
Meanwhile, Pandelela admitted that they faced many challenges, including during the training sessions, en route to their success today.
“Among them were having to tend to our injuries on our own because we are young anymore, so a lot of treatment was needed. But we performed well and are satisfied with the results,” she said.
Pandelela – Nur Dhabitah are expected to take a short break before returning to training for the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary from June 26 to July 3 and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games 2022 from July 28 to August 8.
— Bernama
