Competing in the recent 26th South East Asian Games involving the countries of Malaysia, Thailand, Singapore, Philippines, Indonesia, Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Cambodia, Brunei and Timor Leste, Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah, an 8-year old girl from Malaysia grabbed not only the attention of the regional but also the global media, including the Times of London.
The diminutive Aaliyah, who is only 124cm in height and weighs 28kg, captured the hearts of the media covering the Games when she became the youngest ever gold medalist in the history of the Games. On 18 Nov 2011, with a score of 2970 points she won gold in open women tricks.
Aaliyah started waterskiing at 5 when the Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (MWWF) launched their 10 year development plan to achieve world class skiers by 2020. She is also the younger sister of Phillipa Yoong and former Formula 1 driver Alex Yoong who recently resumed tournament skiing after a 14 year layoff.
She is amongst scores of children from the age of 5 to 17 who have attended the MWWF training academy from which MWWF has identified a core of 16 trainees for further development.