From Sarawak with Love: Pandelela’s mum, dad and bro off to Rio

National diving diva Pandelela Rinong Pamg will get the biggest morale boost when she gets down to compete in the women’s individual 10m platform competition in the Rio Olympics in Rio de Janiero, Brazil on August 18 (Malaysian time, 3am).

Her parents Pamg Joheng and Hartini Lamin are flying to Rio de Janiero together with her brother Pardika Indoma to support her in the quest to capture another medal for Malaysia.

They left for Kuala Lumpur on Monday night where they are joined by Pardika and the trio will fly to Rio de Janiero via Dubai.

“Our journey to Rio de Janiero will take about five days and we will fly back from Brazil on August 21,” Pamg told reporters at the Kuching International Airport.

He added the tickets to Rio de Janiero which costs about RM30,000 are fully borne by Pandelela herself.

“I feel proud that Pandelela is representing Malaysia in the Olympics and she and teammate (Cheong Jun Hoong) had helped to deliver the first medal for the country,” the 50-year old Pamg said.

The duo plunged to a silver medal in the women’s 10m platform synchro after posting a total score of 344.34 points to finish 9.66 points behind gold medallists China’s Chen Roulin and Liu Huixia at the Maria Lenk Aquatics Centre.

Third were the Canadian pair of Meaghan Benfeito and Roseline Filion on 336.18 points.

“Yes, I am fully confident of Pandelela’s ability and I believe that she will give her very best to display her diving skills,” he said.

Four years ago at the London Games, Pandelela had created history by becoming the first Malaysian woman to win an Olympic medal.

She bagged the bronze in the women’s 10 platform with 359.20 points behind gold medallist Chen Roulin of China (422.30 points) and Australia’s Brittany Broben (366.50 points).

Pandelela’s mother Hartini said the last time she saw her daughter was on March 2 when Pandelela returned to Bau to celebrate her birthday.

Before moving to the departure gate, Pamg and Hartini made the Korean gesture of “Love, Love” to show their love for their daughter and at the same time to refute the negative comments of some netizens that the gesture meant “money counting.”

BP