Diver Tze Liang Goes Solo In Olympic Push

National diver Ooi Tze Liang (second from left) and artistic gymnast Farah Ann Abdul Hadi with their prize during the incentive presentation for the Singapore SEA Games medal winners at Putrajaya on Wednesday. - MOHD SAHAR MISNI/ The STAR

KUALA LUMPUR: Ooi Tze Liang will only focus on the men’s individual 3m springboard and 10m platform at the Asian Diving Cup in Bukit Jalil from Sept 4-6 to realise his Olympic dream.

Tze Liang led the divers to receive RM159,000 under the National Sports Council’s (NSC) incentive scheme for their total haul of eight golds and three bronzes at the Singapore SEA Games in June.

Tze Liang collected a handsome cheque of RM50,000 for his four-gold sweep in Singapore.

The 20-year-old from Penang won two synchro titles – with Chew Yiwei in the 10m platform and Ahmad Amsyar Azman in the 3m springboard. Tze Liang also retained his 3m springboard individual title and finished off by winning the 10m platform to chalk his best-ever achievement at SEA Games level.

The SEA Games contingent were feted to a reception to celebrate their success in bagging 62 golds, 58 silvers and 66 bronzes at Putrajaya on Wednesday night.

For Tze Liang, he will now focus his attention on the Asian Diving Cup.

“It’s the continental qualification event for the Rio Olympics next year. But I will only focus on the individual events this time as only the individual winners get to qualify for the Games.

“China have already earned the full quota of eight individual spots at the World Aquatics Championships (in Kazan, Russia, early this month), so they’re not sending their divers. In their absence, I hope to take full advantage of earning an Olympic spot,” said Tze Liang.

Tze Liang had a disappointing outing in Kazan. He botched one of his dives in the 10m platform individual preliminaries and could only finish 22nd. Only the top 12 finalists qualify for Rio and Tze Liang rued the missed chance.

“I would have reached the top 18 semi-finals if I did not mess up my landing on the fourth dive.

“But I’m not giving up my dream of making my Olympic debut. I will learn from my mistakes.”

Besides the Asian Cup, Tze Liang can still qualify via the World Cup in Rio next February.

THE PAYOUT 

By Sport: Diving (RM159,000), swimming (RM76,000), synchronised swimming (RM33,500), archery (RM111,000), badminton (RM60,000), basketball (RM60,000), billiards and snooker (RM40,000), bowling (RM127,000), cycling (RM33,000), equestrian (RM24,000), fencing (RM2,000), floorball (RM5,000), artistic gymnastics (RM81,000), rhythmic gymnastics (RM44,500), hockey (RM180,000), judo (RM5,000), netball (RM9,000), pencak silat (RM69,000), petanque (RM39,000), rowing (RM1,000), rugby Sevens (RM9,000), sailing (RM162,000), sepaktakraw (RM43,250), shooting (RM70,000), squash (RM86,000), table tennis (RM6,000), taekwondo (RM12,000), tennis (RM2,000), triathlon (RM3,000), waterski (RM38,500), wushu (RM53,000)

Top individual recipients

1. Ooi Tze Liang (diving) - RM50,000 (four golds)
2. Fatin Nurfatehah Mat Salleh (archery) - RM35,000 (three golds)
3. Rafiq Ismail (bowling) - RM34,666 (three golds, one silver)
4. Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah (waterski) - RM34,000 (two golds, one silver)
5. Farah Ann Abdul Hadi (artistic gymnastics) - RM30,000 (two golds, one silver, three bronzes)
6. Mohd Harrif Saleh (road cycling) - RM30,000 (two golds)