Injury dashes Nur Dhabitah's dream for final, olympic ticket

KUALA LUMPUR - A wrist injury foiled national elite diver Nur Dhabitah Sabri’s dream of getting a good result after she fumbled in the semi-finals of the women’s 3-metre springboard at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.

Nur Dhabitah said due to the injury, the recovery process prevented her from undergoing training earlier before she returned to test out her favourite dive disciplines about two weeks ahead of the competition.

Given the less than ideal preparations, the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics diver did surprisingly well in the qualifying round where she finished fifth but could not keep up the momentum in the semi-finals.

"In the semi-finals, I began to feel pain in the wrist but still persisted in completing all the five dives.

"Being injured is so difficult because I’m not just dealing with injuries (but) I have to deal with my mental health as well. Seeing other people train and I can’t train as much as I wanted to, it’s so heartbreaking,” the 24-year-old Kuala Lumpur-born athlete told Bernama when contacted in Fukuoka today.

Elaborating on the injury, Nur Dhabitah said she had to take three injections every week for three weeks to speed up the recovery process to enable her to attend training in China as preparations for the Japan trip.

"I'm thankful to the doctor who helped me to recover fast before flying to China. By right it should be just one jab a week but for faster recovery, we decided to have three injections a week for three weeks,” she said.

She said the injury also prevented her from competing in the World Cup 2023 diving championships in Montreal, Canada last May, which saw springboards with the latest technology being used for the first time.

The 2019 Asian Cup gold medallist admitted that because of this, she struggled to adjust to the new springboard in Fukuoka while the other divers had the advantage of competing in Montreal.

In yesterday’s semi-finals, Nur Dhabitah was in the top six after three dives but an error in the fourth dive saw her plunging to 16th spot, before she recovered in the final dive to finish in 15th place.

She only managed to collect 285.45 points in the semi-finals, compared to 303.55 points in the qualifying round earlier in the morning.

The shocking result also denied Nur Dhabitah an early ticket to the Paris 2024 Olympics as only the finalists comprising 12 athletes qualified for the world’s biggest games.

In the 2016 Olympics, Nur Dhabitah, then 17, finished ninth in the women’s 10m platform final and partnered Cheong Jun Hoong to finish fifth in the women’s 3m synchronised springboard.

In the following edition in Tokyo, Nur Dhabitah did better but was unlucky to finish fourth in the women’s 3m springboard, thus failing to land her first Olympic medal. - BERNAMA