Astro Arena's short documentary, The Curse of the Belly Flop, was among Asia's top submissions of the 2019 AIPS Sport Media Awards.

The special report by Arena reporter Bazly Azmi, which was submitted for the Video Short Feature category, focused on Malaysian diver Loh Zhiayi after she injured herself with a belly flop in 2017.

It resulted in her developing a visual condition named glaucoma and being sidelined for a lenghty period.



"Most fans laugh when divers make belly flops, but in reality, the divers will risk severe permanent disability.

"I have seen some cases resulting in divers developing visual and psychological difficulties.

"I hope the report can educate others on the risks of belly flop and inspire the divers to bounce back," said Bazly.

The award for the category eventually went to Leibman Production's Sign At All Times, while NBC Sports' Hope: The Gabe Grunewald Story and Olympic Channel's Legends Live On: Matthias Steiner finished second and third respectively.

Bazly was one of the four Malaysians on the list of top submissions as he was joined by Wong Fok Loy (Photography Sport Action), Jasni Shafie (Video Documentary) and Amirul Adnan Ali (Young Reporters Photography).