KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — National diver Pandelela Rinong has secured her second ticket to the 2020 Olympic Games after qualifying to the final round of the women’s 10 metre (m) platform at the 18th FINA World Diving Championship in Gwangju, South Korea, today.

She finished ninth out of 18 participants in the semi-final after completing five rounds of dives with a total of 312.70 points.

The 26-year-old Sarawak-born diver collected 63.00 points in the first dive followed by 60.90 in the second dive to place Pandelela in 11th position, but jumped to eighth spot with 64.00 points in the third dive, only to drop to ninth after the fourth and fifth dives.

The top twelve individuals advanced to the final and automatically qualify to the Olympics.

Chen Yuxi and Lu Wei of China finished first and second with 407.95 points and 370.85 points respectively, followed by two Canadian divers Caeli Mckay (356.70) and Meaghan Benfeito (340.60).

The other individuals who also qualified to the final were Noemi Batki (Italy), Melissa Wu (Australia), Lois Toulson (Great Britain), Delaney Schnell, Amelia Magana (United States); Matsuri Arai (Japan), Celine van Duijn (Netherlands).

Yesterday, Pandelela and Leong Mun Yee secured the first ticket after winning silver medal in the women’s 10m synchronised platform by accumulating 312.72 points after five rounds of dives.

The results were a slight improvement for Pandelela and Mun Yee as the pair had won the bronze medal in the same event in two previous editions — 2009 in Rome and 2013 in Barcelona.

For the record, Pandelela had also clinched the bronze medal in the 10m individual platform in 2015 edition in Kazan, and also in the 10m synchronised platform with Cheong Jun Hoong in 2017 edition in Budapest. — Bernama