Bowling strikes again, diving stumbles — a tale of two Malaysian sports

New Straits Times

19 hours ago

KUALA LUMPUR: One is thriving. The other is drowning.
As Malaysian tenpin bowlers continue to sweep titles abroad, the country's once-mighty diving programme is gasping for air — outclassed by rivals we used to leave in our wake.
The contrast is staggering.
While diving now grabs headlines for all the wrong reasons, Malaysian bowling just keeps winning, with barely a whisper of fanfare.
At the recent Under-18 Asian Junior Championships in Doha, Malaysia's 16-strong squad steamrolled the competition, taking home seven golds, one silver and five bronzes to be crowned overall champions.
They weren't plucked from elite academies.
These were young talents drawn from 10 different states, the product of a solid, nationwide grassroots system.
Just weeks earlier, more than 900 bowlers turned up for a National Junior Circuit leg in Perak. That's not just a tournament. That's a movement.
Despite a modest budget, Malaysian bowlers have conquered the world from the PBA and PWBA Tours in the United States to major titles across Europe and Asia.
Names like Datuk Shalin Zulkifli, Esther Cheah, Sin Li Jane, Natasha Roslan, Rafiq Ismail and Alex Liew are more than just stars — they're legends, produced by an effective system built on structure, merit and long-term planning, all thanks to the Malaysian Tenpin Bowling Congress (MTBC).
Coaches are local. Selections are based on data — not guesswork. No politics. No chaos. Just results.
Now compare that to Malaysian diving, once the envy of the region.
At the recent World Aquatics Championships, 14-year-old Singaporean debutant Ainslee Kwang made history by reaching the semi-finals of the women's 10m platform — the first from her country to do so. Malaysia's Lee Yiat Qing finished a dismal 29th in the prelims.
Two-time Olympic medallist Pandelela Rinong withdrew due to injury.
This is the very event Malaysia used to own. Our divers once stood shoulder to shoulder with the Chinese — the undisputed kings of the sport, and held their own at the Olympics and World Championships.
Now, we can't even stay competitive.
In the men's 3m springboard, Syafiq Puteh and Nurqayyum Nazim Nazmi were left trailing behind divers from Singapore and Thailand.
Once a diving powerhouse, Malaysia have hit rock bottom.
This dramatic decline didn't happen overnight. It's the result of years of poor planning and short-sighted decisions that gutted what was once a model high-performance programme.
The late Datuk Wira Mazlan Ahmad — the visionary NSC director-general who led Malaysia's diving boom — would be devastated.
In the late 1990s, under the bold Jaya 98 programme, children as young as seven were asked to leap from 10m platforms to test their fearlessness.
Brutal? Yes. Effective? Undeniably.
It identified mental toughness early and laid the foundation for future champions.
That system delivered.
Malaysia's first diving golds came at the 1999 Brunei SEA Games through Yeoh Ken Nee and Farah Begum Abdullah.
From there, the medals kept flowing — Asian Games, Commonwealth Games, World Championships and even Olympic podiums.
The pinnacle? Cheong Jun Hoong's world title in 2017, when she beat the Chinese to win the 10m platform gold in Budapest.
It was a magical moment and proof Malaysia had arrived.
Then it all began to unravel. National head coach Yang Zhuliang — the man behind Malaysia's transformation — was unceremoniously axed.
Officially, it was over internal issues and claims that he lacked sports science credentials.
In truth, it was a disastrous move. His departure triggered a slow, painful freefall for Malaysian diving.
Since then, Malaysia has only won the occasional medal.
The structure is gone. The consistency is gone. Rivals have not only caught up, they've left us behind.
Singapore and Thailand now boast stronger grassroots systems and better results. Even Japan and South Korea — once struggling to compete — have surged ahead.
Yes, diving facilities remain limited in Malaysia. But they always were. In the past, we still produced world-class athletes.
The real issue? Talent identification is weak. Coaching depth has diminished. Succession planning is almost non-existent.
We don't lack brave, talented kids — but the system to nurture them is broken.
To its credit, Malaysia Aquatics has acknowledged the nosedive. New youth camps, scouting efforts and coaching programmes have been introduced to rebuild the talent pipeline.
But progress takes time and there are no guarantees. Years of mismanagement won't be fixed overnight.
Worse still, we're bleeding expertise.
National icons Bryan Nickson Lomas and Wendy Ng, who once flew the flag proudly, are now coaching in South Korea and Singapore respectively.
It's more than a brain drain. It's a warning sign of just how far we've fallen.
Even Pandelela, our Olympic hero, is past her peak.
With the Thailand SEA Games just months away, Malaysia faces the very real threat of losing its regional diving crown — a once-unthinkable scenario.
Maybe it's time diving and other underperforming sports took a page from MTBC's playbook.
Bowling and diving are the story of Malaysian sport in two acts. One sport keeps striking gold. The other can barely make a splash.
The question now: Will struggling sports finally learn from MTBC's winning formula? Because the solutions are there.
What's missing… is the will.