My Mother, My Supporter

These women who have been quietly raising and nurturing their offspring to become the sports champions they are today are now their children’s loudest cheerleader; their next stop is London: the 30th Olympiad.

She used to jump off a bamboo bridge, and I would be waiting in the river to catch her - HARTINI LAMIM

IMAGINE having to watch your daughter jump off a 10m-high platform and into a vast pool of water regularly. Or watching your son hurtle around a track on a bicycle at breakneck speed.

That’s what you go through when you are the mothers of an Olympic-standard diver and cyclist respectively. Their children may be world-class competitors but that hasn’t stopped the mothers of Pandelela Rinong and Azizulhasni Awang from feeling nervous and afraid each time their children step into their respective arenas.

“The first time she jumped off the 10m platform, I couldn’t bear to watch! I had to go outside and watch from the car park!” recalls Pandelela’s mother, Hartini Lamim, 44.


Selamiah Yong, 48, too, is a bundle of nerves whenever Azizulhasni (or Azizul for short) gets on a bike. “I’m always afraid of him falling! When he was small, he would come home with wounds all over his body from falling off his bike!” she reveals.

Surprisingly, even though Azizul has been competing for almost 10 years now, Selamiah had never been to any of his races until the Asian Cycling Championships in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, earlier this year.

The only thing I could do was to give him my support, and help him apply medicine on his wounds when he fell - SELAMIAH YONG

Similarly, the last SEA Games in Indonesia was also the first time Hartini caught her daughter in action live after all these years. “I had to save up for two years to make the trip to Palembang (south Sumatra). I’d always wanted to be there with my daughter but was unable to due to financial constraints.”

Happily, she won’t have such problems when Pandelela heads to the Olympic Games in London this July, and neither will Selamiah.

The two mothers will be watching from the stands as their offspring compete amongst the world’s best in the prestigious sporting event – thanks to Dutch Lady Malaysia, who is sponsoring a trip to London for the two women as well as for the mothers of Malaysia’s top shuttlers – men’s doubles pair Tan Boon Heong and Koo Kien Keat.

The sponsorship, which includes return airfare, accommodation and tickets to their children’s respective events, is what the milk company has touted as its “reward to them for having nurtured and raised champions for the nation”. It’s also tied to Dutch Lady’s current campaign to promote an early healthy start for children.

In conjunction with Mother’s Day on Sunday, here’s a glimpse into the lives of two Olympics-bound stars with their mothers.
Taking the dive

Teenage star: Pandelela Rinong in action during the women’s 10m platform final in the Canadian Open 2012 in Montreal last Sunday. The teenager has come a long way from dipping in a water tank to becoming a national hero on the diving stage.

Springboard to success

National Sportswoman Of The Year (2011)

Women’s Diving World Championships 2009 (Rome, Italy): Bronze (10m synchro platform)

Youth Olympics (2010, Singapore): Silver (10m platform); silver (3m springboard)

Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou, China: Bronze (10m platform); silver (10m synchro platform)

Commonwealth Games (2010, New Delhi, India): Gold (10m platform); silver (10m platform synchro)

SEA Games:

2011, Palembang, Indonesia: Gold (10m platform)

2009, Vientiane, Laos: Gold (10m platform); gold (10m synchro platform)

2007, Nakhon Ratchasima, Thailand: Gold (10m synchro platform)

Diving World Series 2012: Moscow, Russia: Silver (10m platform); Beijing, China: Silver (10m synchro platform)

Canadian Open Diving Championships 2012: Gold (10m platform)

Currently ranked No.3 in the world in the women’s 10m platform diving, Pandelela is one of Malaysia’s brightest medal prospects for the coming Olympic Games.

The second of four siblings (she has an elder brother and two younger sisters), the 19-year-old started her diving career at age nine, when she was spotted by a Sarawak state coach at her local public swimming pool near her village of Kampung Jugan, Sarawak.

Impressed by her flexibility, the coach offered to train her to become a diver. Surprisingly, the lass didn’t even know how to swim properly at the time, so she had to start from the very beginning.

Little Pandelela, happy to be in mum’s arms. 

“It was a little hard at first (learning to swim), and I even almost drowned once!” Pandelela, the daughter of a contract worker and a housewife, recalls at an interview in Bukit Jalil, Kuala Lumpur.

Fortunately, she was already quite comfortable being in water at the time, thanks to her mother, who first instilled in her a love for water.

“Her first swim was in a water tank at the back of our house, and when she was four, I would bring her to play by the river. She used to jump off a bamboo bridge there, and I would be waiting in the river to catch her,” says Hartini in Bahasa Malaysia.

According to Hartini, Pandelela had always been a quick learner and hyperactive kid who loved sports. “As a kid, she could never sit still. She was always very active – running and jumping around, and she always preferred playing sports to masak-masak!” she remembers with a smile.

Still, when she found out that her then-nine-year-old daughter was going to be a diver, Hartini couldn’t help but feel a little anxious. “Back then, she wasn’t even very good at swimming yet, and the pool was a lot deeper than the river or the tank!” she says.

Once Pandelela started training regularly with her coach, however, she had her mother’s full support. Hartini would drive Pandelela to the pool every day for training, and if there was no car available, she would even accompany her daughter on the 30-minute walk to the pool.

“I knew that if I stopped her (from diving), she would be very sad. She really loved it, and the most important thing for me as a mother is that she is happy,” she says.

Pandelela is Malaysia’s first Commonwealth Games gold medallist in an aquatic sport, having won the women’s 10m platform in the 2010 New Delhi Games. London 2012 will be her second Olympic outing, and she will be competing in three events – the individual 10m platform, the synchronised 10m platform with Leong Mun Yee, and the 3m springboard synchro with Cheong Jun Hoong.

With her mother cheering her on from the stands, it is guaranteed to be an extra special occasion, not to mention a particularly nerve-wracking one, too, for her.

According to Pandelela, she was especially nervous in Palembang last year, which was the first time her mum was among the spectators. “I had never competed with my mother watching before, so I really wanted to do better! I didn’t do so well (in Palembang) but fortunately, I still managed to win the gold medal (in the 10m platform),” says the lass who last month bagged the National Sportswoman Award.

Having already witnessed one of her daughter’s moments of glory, Hartini is definitely looking forward to seeing her in action again, in London, come July. “I was really surprised when I heard Dutch Lady was going to send me to London to watch her dive. I still can’t believe it....” she says.
Cycle of glory

Cool rider: Azizulhasni Awang celebrates after winning the gold in the men’s keirin finals in the 2010 Asian Games in Guangzhou, China. From a kiddie two-wheeler to a racing bike, the Pocket Rocket Man has risen to rule the cycling track.

Great track record

National Sportsman Of The Year (2010)

Asian Junior Games 2006, Kuala Lumpur: Gold (sprint)

World Cycling Championships 2009, Pruszkow, Poland: Silver (sprint)

Asian Cycling Championships Asia Cup 2010: Two golds

World Cycling Championships 2010, Copenhagen, Denmark: Silver (keirin)

Commonwealth Games 2010, New Delhi, India: Bronze (team sprint)

Asian Games 2010, Guangzhou, China: Gold (keirin)

Asian Cycling Championships 2012, Kuala Lumpur: Silver (sprint)

Born in 1988 in Dungun, Terengganu, Azizul is one of the best in the keirin and 200m sprint. He was the highest placed Asian cyclist in the keirin at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, and this time around, will be gunning for a medal as well.

His cycling story began when he was four years old, pedalling around the compound of his family home in a little bike with training wheels.

“When his father bought him the bicycle, he was so excited and kept going round and round the staircase!” Selamiah recalls during our chat in Selangor.

She cheerfully adds that her son has always been very active in sports, representing his school and state in other sports like football, athletics and hockey.

“No matter what competition he joined, he would always win a prize, even in supermarket lucky draws!” she beams.

Mama’s boy: Three-year-old Azizul at home with his mum. 

When he was 12, Azizul caught a leg of the Tour de Langkawi, and has been hooked on cycling ever since, going on to take it as a sport seriously. “I was so impressed with the riders in that race, and I knew then it was what I wanted to do,” says the 24-year-old ace who grew up amongst a large brood, as the second youngest of nine children.

As soon as the lad made the decision, he started to follow in his elder brother’s footsteps and joined the local cycling club in Dungun, where he trained under a proper coach using a bicycle loaned by the club. “When he started cycling, I knew I couldn’t stop him ... the only thing I could do was to give him my support, and help him apply medicine on his wounds when he fell,” says Selamiah, a housewife.

Seeing how enthusiastic Azizul was about cycling, Selamiah and her late husband made a deal with him – if he could get good grades and prove that he could juggle cycling and his studies, then they would buy him a proper racing bike. “His father and I just told him that if he was really serious about cycling, then he had to go all the way. But he also had to be committed to his studies, because it is important for his future, when he stops cycling,” she says.

“My mother used to nag me about studying all the time! But I managed to prove to her that I can juggle the two, and she stopped nagging,” Azizul says with a laugh. He eventually scored seven As and one B in the PMR exam, and his parents got him a RM300 second-hand bicycle.

His parents have indeed succeeded in drumming into their children the importance of education. Despite being a top-class sportsman, Azizul has not neglected his studies as he is taking up Commerce and Business Studies at Deakin University in Melbourne, Australia.

When he was 14, his coach entered him in a race in Kuala Lumpur, and to his surprise, he emerged victorious. “I had never cycled on a track before, but I managed to win against the more experienced racers!” he recalls.

After that win, he was offered a place in the Bukit Jalil Sports School in KL, and the rest is history.

Azizul’s achievements include two gold medals in the Asian Cycling Championships Asia Cup in 2010, a silver medal each in the 2009 Poland Track World Championships and the 2010 Copenhagen Track World Championships (Denmark) as well as a silver in the recent Asian Cycling Championships in KL. He was also given the honour of being Malaysia’s flag-bearer at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.

The winner of the National Sportsman Award 2011 (for his achievements in 2010) has still one more goal to reach for – an Olympic gold medal.

And to make it sweeter, his mother will be there to witness it if he manages to pull off the feat this July.

“Every time I compete, I’ve always wished that my mother could be there to see me, and celebrate my wins,” says the Terengganu native who has also been described by his mum as a “good husband” to Athiah Ilyana Abdul Samat, 26, who is also a student in Melbourne.

“This time, I hope I can win the Olympic gold medal right in front of her, and make her proud,” concludes the diminutive athlete famously nicknamed the “Pocket Rocket Man”.