Malaysian 14-year-old scores `cute points'
Despatie in semifinal after strong showing

Randy Starkman

ATHENS�A boy among men launches all 66 pounds of himself off the 10-metre platform. His impishness endears him to both the crowd and the judges.

Canadian diving star Alexandre Despatie and his coach, Michel Larouche, couldn't help but grin at the memories that came rushing back yesterday as they watched 14-year-old Bryan Nickson of Malaysia compete in the preliminaries.

"He reminds me a lot of myself in '98 at the Commonwealth Games, having the crowd behind him exactly like it was for me," said Despatie, who finished a strong second to advance to today's semifinal.

"He's very talented. He should work very hard because he's got great potential. Once you get bigger, the cute points are out of the way."

The "cute points" are the ones you can draw from the judges for qualities that have nothing to do with the way you dive. Despatie used to draw some of those when he was a darling boy wonder. At age 13, he made the Guinness Book of World Records as the youngest winner of an international diving event at the 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia.

"He's a little kid, everybody loves him, you want to hug the little boy," said Larouche of Nickson.

"When he hits a dive, the judges are human, that's fine. He'll get older, grow up, and then he'll have to hit the dive for real. I saw him a couple times this year internationally. He's working very hard."

The 4-foot-6 Nickson, who names Despatie as his hero, showed no fear in flinging himself off the tower to finish 19th, missing a spot in today's semifinal by 4.17 points as the top 18 qualified. He bowed to the crowd after every dive.

"The crowd was with me," said the soft-spoken youngster, who carried his country's flag in the opening ceremonies. "It supported me a lot, even though that made me a bit nervous."

Larouche smiled at the memories Nickson brought rushing back to him.

"The kid, before he started the event, I look at that guy, I remember Alex in Malaysia, about the same height, the crowd started to cheer for him, and the same thing happened here. Funny, it's amazing how things turn around," Larouche said.

"When you're young like that you don't feel the pressure, like the ones competing to win the contest. You're here to participate and have fun. I'm sure he had a lot of fun here, being supported by the crowd here. What a thrill for this little guy."

Despatie, the reigning world champion in the event, had a score of 500.55 points. Australian Mathew Helm of Australia was first at 513.06, while defending Olympic champion Tian Liang of China was third with 481.47, despite missing a dive.

"I was a little angry with a couple of dives, but I'm happy there's a lot of room for getting better in the finals," said Despatie.

Christopher Kalec of Laval, Que., who had been biding his time waiting to compete on the third last day of the Games, qualified for the semifinal in 12th with 429.72 points.

"It's been a huge wait," said Kalec. "Most people are done and I've not started yet. It really got to me this week. I closed myself in my room, read a lot ... I could feel the energy exploding in the athletes' lounge. Everyone's partying, talking about going to the beach. It sucks, it really sucks. My family is here, my girlfriend, brother, best friend are all here, but I've got to focus on this first. I'm happy today went great, so the wait was worth it."

He does plan to do some partying, though.

"I'm going totally insane (tomorrow). You can put that down in writing."

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