KUCHING: Voon Lee Shan has hit back at Malaysian Swimming Federation (MAS) secretary-general Andy Low for his remarks towards the nation’s diving queen Datuk Pandelela Rinong’s failure in the recent World Aquatics Championship in Doha.
The Parti Bumi Kenyalang (PBK) president said sports officials should not condemn or demean sportsmen as it could easily discourage them to excel.
“Low should resign from his post for hurting the feelings of Sarawakians. He has, by his words, shown very little respect to Pandelela and the aquatic team who represented the country.
“Being an official, he should give words of encouragement, understand the problems and see the needs of the aquatic team,” he said in a statement today.
Voon went on to say that Low should also acknowledge the contribution of Pandelela to the sport.
“Sportsmen are human and they could not peak and be consistent in their performances all the time.
“We could see from the plasters on her body, Pandelela injured herself in training and in competition for the sake of the sport and country.
“No sportsman wants to fail in a competition and all want to win and Pandelela is not an exception,” he said.
He also said the country should be very proud of Pandelela’s achievements in the sport.
“We hope Pandelela would not give up the sport yet and fight on,” said Voon.
It was previously reported that Pandelela had claimed that an issue that troubled the national diving team at the World Aquatics Championship in Doha was due to poor performance of the diving squad.
In response to that, Low was reported to have said the national diver was only giving an excuse to cover up the failure in Doha.
