Loh Zhiayi in a file photo taken in 2012. The 16-year-old is hoping for a belated birthday present in the form of a medal win at the Asian Youth Games in China.
PETALING JAYA: Taiping-born diver Loh Zhiayi turned 16 on Tuesday and wants to reward herself with a perfect belated birthday gift when she competes in the Asian Youth Games (AYG), starting in Nanjing, China, Saturday.
A team of three two boys and a girl – Mohd Nazreen Abdullah, Mohd Danial Sabri; and Zhiayi – arrived in the Chinese city Thusday night to vie for medals at the second edition of AYG, which ends on Aug 24.
The trio will compete in all four events – boys’ and girls’ 3m springboard and platform.
Zhiayi, who finished an impressive fifth at the World Junior Championships in Adelaide last October, has been tipped by head coach Yang Zhuliang to shine in the platform discipline.
“I hope to do well in the AYG so that my birthday will be more meaningful,” said the double gold medallist at last year’s Kuantan Sukma.
“After the recent one-month training stint in China, I feel like I’m a better diver now. I’ve increased my DD (degree of difficulty) since the world juniors. I’ll be executing two higher DD routines, 107B and 407C (both carrying 3.0 and 3.2 respectively) in future competitions.
“Hopefully, I can perform them well and see where they’ll take me.”
Zhuliang is counting on Zhiayi to do the country proud in Nanjing.
“We have a small team but we hope Zhiayi can deliver. She has a decent chance in platform. I hope Nazreen and Danial can give a good account of themselves too,” said Zhuliang, who is not in China but has put his assistant, Zhang Yikun, in charge.
The 68-member Malaysian contingent are among the 45 nations competing in this edition of the AYG, which features 15 sports.
At the last AYG held in Singapore four years ago, Malaysia won only a bronze medal in sailing.
But that was due to Malaysia withdrawing the whole contingent, except for sailing, following the H1N1 flu outbreak.
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