PUTRAJAYA, July 30 — SEA Games gold medal prospect Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah is just 14-years-old, but she already has too much pressure to handle.

Aaliyah who became the youngest ever gold medallist in the SEA Games history when she claimed the tricks event gold at the tender age of eight in the 2011 edition in Indonesia, is now expected to deliver ‘big’ when Malaysia hosts the biennial games from Aug 19-30.

However, the national and Asian record holder in the women’s tricks with 7,100 points, has to overcome the pressure and produce consistent results, after bagging a gold, silver and bronze in the 2017 Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Internationals at Putrajaya Water Complex here, today.

"Despite winning these medals, I am not so happy today because could not do better than in first round yesterday. I think when I become the best in all three events (tricks, slalom and jump) yesterday, everyone was expecting me to win all the events today.

"I know I am the favourite in tricks, but when people expect to win all, I had my adrenaline flowing before the start and my heart started to pump faster. I still have about 20 days to the SEA Games, I will try to absorb the pressure and improvise my performance,” she said.

Aaliyah bagged the tricks event gold as expected after scoring 4,300 points, but in the jump, she finished second after jumping for 30.0m behind SEA Games defending champion Rossi Amir of Indonesia who managed 31.3m while her compatriot Nur Alimah Priambodo took the bronze with a distance of 29.6m.

In the slalom, Singapore’s Sasha Siew Hoon won the gold after scoring 1.50/55/12.00, while Indonesia’s Ummu Thoyibhatus Sholikah bagged the silver (6.00/55/14.25), followed by Aaliyah for bronze (4.50/55/14.25).

Though the overall event was not contested at the tournament which is also known as the Pre-Games championships, team manager Ahmad Azuddin Arshad said Aaliyah remains the favourite to win the SEA Games gold in the overall event based on her performance, besides has chances to create an upset in the slalom and jump.

"I can see a lot of improvement in the performances of our athletes, including Aaliyah, in this tournament, after going through a few months of hard training and stints at the Unites States and Australia. Now they can compete closely among the main medal contenders in the SEA Games and might deliver surprise medals,” he said.

Meanwhile, chef-de-mission Datuk Marina Chin hopes the young water skiers would use the upcoming SEA Games as the launchpad to become the best skiers in the world in future. — Bernama