KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 10 — Former national divers Bryan Nickson Lomas and Khairul Safwan Mansur have been appointed as the technical director and national high-performance diving squad director, respectively.
Malaysia Swimming Federation (MAS) honourary secretary Andy Low said the appointment of the two Olympians was decided after discussions with various parties involved, and they will start work from October 1.
“We will discuss and draft short and long-term plans for diving. The role of technical director is to go to the grassroots, hold courses, open centres and get more back up athletes, while the high-performance director oversees elite divers.
“We hope for a (Olympic) gold medal as the whole country wants gold. Nothing is impossible; if they (our divers) work hard, work like China, we should be able to beat China one day,” he told the press today.
Low hopes the combination of the two local talents would be able to fire the spirit of the diving camp to move forward following several lacklustre outings lately.
With less than one year before the 2024 Paris Olympics, he said the task of Bryan and Khairul Safwan in the period is to raise the level of diving difficulties to earn higher marks.
Asked about the medal target for the 2022 Hangzhou Asian Games from September 23 to October 8, Low said the national diving camp is eyeing one silver and two bronzes while the swimming squad is only putting hopes on advancing to the final.
“Currently, it is difficult to win the gold in diving because China is very strong and is still the strongest challenger on the world level,” he said.
Lomas, 33, who hails from Kuching, Sarawak, can be considered the most successful male diver in Malaysia, having won medals at various international stages including the SEA Games, Asian Games, and Commonwealth Games, as well as having competed in three Olympics — Athens 2004, Beijing 2008 and London 2012.
He is also the youngest Malaysian athlete to qualify for the Olympics at the age of 14, in addition to becoming the country’s first diver to win a gold medal at the World Youth Championships when he emerged as the champion of the 3m springboard event in the 2004 edition in Brazil.
Khairul Safwan, who represented the country around 2000, had performed at various levels such as the 2006 Commonwealth Games and several editions of the World Cup.
— Bernama
