A severe back injury may force Australian platform specialist Melissa Wu out of the Birmingham Commonwealth Games and this could just make it easier for diver Pandelela Rinong to deliver cheers to Malaysia in the pool.
Australian media reports have mentioned that the two-time Olympic medallist diver may be forced to retire prematurely due to an injury suffered on a reality TV show.
Melissa has spent the last five months trying to recover from a back injury sustained during filming for the current season of SAS Australia, in which celebrities compete in bizarre challenges while being berated by ex-soldiers.
That means Melissa is not a sure bet to compete in the Commonwealth Games in July, where she is the reigning gold medallist in the 10m individual platform diving and has previously won gold in the 10m synchronised platform.
“I’m managing it the best way I can and I’m pushing forward with diving but I have to be really careful about not pushing it too hard because then I’ll go backwards,” Melissa told The Daily Telegraph.
“It’s a fine line with how much I can push it, so I’m taking it day by day. I’m not hugely confident that it will get better because it has been five months now. It’s a physical issue but if it doesn’t get better, it becomes a mental challenge to try and overcome that.
“My goal for this year is to compete at the Commonwealth Games, so I will be doing everything I can to get over this injury and get ready.”
On the other hand, it will lift Malaysia’s chances of seeing a golden splash in Birmingham.
Pandelela will be the main hope in the women’s 10m individual platform and she will have high hopes of regaining the gold she last won in the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.
Pandelela and Melissa are both 29 and have been great rivals in platform diving at the Commonwealth Games for their respective nations.
Pandelela finished ahead of Melissa to take the women’s 10m individual platform gold in her Commonwealth Games debut in New Delhi.
In Glasgow in 2014, Pandelela settled for silver behind Meaghan Benfeito of Canada.
Pandelela missed out on a medal when she finished fourth in Gold Coast, Australia, in the 2018 edition while Melissa earned her first ever win in the individual discipline.
For Pandelela, it is all systems go for her preparations regardless of how her rivals are shaping up.
“We are carrying on with our normal training. We have three main assignments to focus on this year – the Vietnam SEA Games in May, then the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in China (September).
“There is no training stint outside the country planned at the moment because it will be hard to maintain our performance as we need to go through quarantine later.
“It is thus better for us to stay and train here. We will go to Perak for a warm-up competition next month,” Pandelela said on the sidelines of the recent National Sports Award function where she and Leong Mun Yee claimed the Best Women’s Team for 2019-2020.
