National Athletes Mun Yee & Latif Romly Granted Datukship, Join Elite Group Of Titled Athletes
Just yesterday afternoon (8 Feb), former Malaysian diver, Leong Mun Yee received her Datuk title in conjunction with the Federal Territory Celebration of 2022.
The news was shared via Majlis Sukan Negara’s official Twitter account and she was also congratulated for her achievement.
At the time of writing, Mun Yee is the 2nd diving athlete of recent times to receive a title following Pandelela Rinong, who was awarded Panglima Setia Bintang Sarawak (PSBS) last October.
Mun Yee received the award from Yang di-Pertuan Agong Sultan Abdullah Sultan Ahmad Shah at Istana Negara today.
Throughout her 27 years of involvement in the diving scenes, she has contributed 17 gold medals, 5 silver medals and 5 bronze medals in the SEA sports. The Perak-born diver formally retired from the world of sport last month.
Mun Yee, who is now 37 years old has also won the silver medals with Pandalela during the World Championship in Gwanju about 3 years ago.
On the same day, Paralympic gold medallist Abdul Latif Romly was also awarded the same title.
Latif won the gold medal and broke the world record in the T20 Long Jump category at the Paralympic Games 2016 in Rio De Janeiro. He won gold again in the Tokyo Paralympics Games 2020.
They both join in the list of national athletes who have been awarded with a title, alongside national diver Pandelela Rinong.
Pandelela is certainly the most successful Malaysian diver to date, having won a bronze at the 2012 Olympics in London and a silver with Cheong Jun Hoong at the Rio Games in 2016.
Her best performance this year was winning a gold medal at the Diving World Cup in May 2021.
Other celebrity athletes on the list are former world No. 1 squash player Datuk Nicol David, and our star shuttler Datuk Lee Chong Wei.
JUICE would like to extend our congratulations to all the athletes for their achievements as well as our gratitude for their contributions in bringing our country’s name globally.