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Pandelela claws back to deliver bronze, makes history

Pandelela claws back to deliver bronze, makes history
  • Nigel Aw
  • 9:10AM Aug 10, 2012
 
Despite a botched start, national diver Pandelela Rinong Pamg clawed her way back to the podium in the women's 10m diving to deliver Malaysia a bronze medal at the London Olympic Games.

NONEThe win by the 19-year-old Sarawakian marks Malaysia's second medal at this year's Olympic summer games after Lee Chong Wei's silver medal in the men's badminton singles and also set a number of new records for the country.

This is the first time Malaysia had ever won at least two medals at the Olympics in 16 years and the second ever in history, with the last being at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games where badminton pair Yap Kim Hock and Cheah Soon Kit bagged the silver medal while Rashid Sidek clinched the bronze medal in the men's badminton singles.

Her victory makes her the first Malaysian woman to bring back an Olympic medal and also marks Malaysia's first ever Olympic medal from a sport other than badminton.

Pandelela got off a shaky start on her first dive, scoring a mere 58.5 points, placing her at ninth place out of 12 divers.

Stunning comeback

She pulled her act together in her second dive with a back somersault to score a strong 78.3 points but left Malaysian supporters in nail-biting suspense when she again continued to trail at ninth place in overall score when she achieved a mere 64 points on her third dive.

NONEHowever, Pandelela made a stunning comeback on her second last dive with an inward somersault that scored her 81.6 points, topping the total score to 282.4 points.

The stunning comeback placed her at fifth place with a razor-thin margin of about two points to the podium before she finished off with another strong score of 76.8 points to sweep the bronze medal from behind.

Pandelela captured the bronze medal with a total score of 359.2, while the silver medal was won by Australia's Brittany Broben with a score of 366.5.

China's defending champion Chen Ruolin clinched the gold medal with a score of 422.30 points, comfortably outclassing all of her competitors.

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