National Juniors Take on Malaysia
With thanks to Diving Australia for the following story
The 2009 Malaysian Open Diving Championships were recently held at the Paroi Aquatic Centre in Seremban. Diving Australia sent a team of athletes from the 2009 National Junior Squad and Emerging Squad to participate in the event. The team departed Australia on 29 September for Kuala Lumpur, with the Paroi Aquatic Centre a 45 minute drive from Kuala Lumpur.
While the Malaysians were competing for a place in the South East Asian Games team, the Australian team were building on their competition skills and international experience.
The team was:
Brittany Broben - QLD
Jocelyn Burnett - TAS
Ashley de Muelenaere - QLD
Emma Jamieson - VIC
Taneka Kovchenko - QLD
Matthew Barnard - QLD
James Connor - VIC
Marcus Gangell - QLD
Darcy Taylor - VIC
Margaret Pierce was appointed the team manager along with coaches Xiangning Chen and Pavel Plotnikov. Results from this event were encouraging, with particular mention of the gold medal win by Ashley de Muelenaere and Taneka Kovchenko finishing with 245.94 points in the 3 metre synchro and the silver medal being awarded to Brittany Broben and Jocelyn Burnett who finished with 230.49 points. The Malaysian pairing of Kam Ling Kar and Jasmine Lai took the bronze medal on 216.39 points.
Other notable results were Emma Jamieson and Ashley de Muelenaere in the women’s 3 metre event, with Emma winning silver on 256.15 points and Ashley winning bronze with 253.70 points. Darcy Taylor and James Connor also won a silver medal in the men’s 3 metre synchro. A great effort from Matthew Barnard who won silver in the men’s platform on 329.10 points behind 2008 Beijing Olympian Bryan Nickson Lomas. James Connor successfully took home the bronze medal with 326.75 points.
The team will arrived home on 4 October.
For full results - click here
