Kota Kinabalu: Sabah’s divers returned with two silvers and two bronzes to finish fourth overall in the MAS/Milo/Sportexcel Age Group Diving Championship 2023 held at the Kuala Lumpur Diving Centre recently.
The silver medals were delivered by Onell Lee in the Group D male one metre springboard and Dea Butiza Haidie in the Group D female three-metre springboard, while the bronze medals came from Dea in the Group D one metre springboard and Hanna Marie Suiking bronze in the Group D female three-metre springboard.
The State team was led by coaches Awang Shairuddin Manis and Nurfazriyanti Jali and the other divers were Lev Mackenzie Leopold and Lyra Nuramanda Rasha.
Sabah Aquatic Sports Association (Sasa) president Daniel Lee said despite failing to win any gold medal, it was an outstanding result from the swimmers with the lack of preparation as a result of upgrading works in the Likas Aquatic centre.
“Congratulation to the team on their achievements. This is an outstanding result considering the divers were only able to conduct dry gym training for the past few months.
“I expect much improvements from them once they can execute and fine tune their routine at the diving pool, and I hope the coaches and the divers will continue their good works,” he said on Tuesday.
He also praised the coaches in their effort to produce female divers in the State.
“It was great to see the State team consisted of female members. We believe in our diving coaches’ effort, and the part they play in producing more girl divers.
“We also hope that female diving events will be a permanent fixture in the upcoming and future Sukma after the event was scrapped in the last meet due to lack of participating teams.”
He once again expressed his thanks to the Youth and Sports Ministry and Sabah Sports Council for their continued support.
