The China diver, barring the unexpected, will surely win the gold but Pandelela has given Malaysia reason to be excited after cyclist Azizulhasni Awang could only manage a sixth place finish in the keirin final on Tuesday.

Azizul, it was hoped, would add to the silver shuttler Lee Chong Wei won in the men’s singles on Sunday but Pandelela, who still has to navigate past the semi-finals on Thursday (5pm Malaysian time), may just deliver a medal.

Had it not been for a poor third dive which fetched only 52.80 points, Pandelela would have finished the preliminary round much closer to Chen Ruolin and a comfortable second ahead of Christin Steuer of Germany, who scored 341.75 points.