KUALA LUMPUR: National water skiing coach, Hanifah Yoong Yin Fah is feeling ecstatic after his daughter Aaliyah Yoong, who is also a national water skiing ace, need not forsake her dreams because of financial constraints.

Aaliyah was recently awarded the prestigious Yayasan Sime Darby (YSD) scholarship worth RM1.1 million to pursue her studies in Florida, USA, for five years, beginning in January.

According to Hanifah, the family's savings was badly affected because his water skiing school had to cease operations due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said he was getting desperate to survive and was worried for Aaliyah, who had to decide whether to stop studying or her water skiing career.

"During COVID-19, I was at my wit's end as I had lost 95 per cent of my income from my water skiing school. Thank God, YSD offered Aaliyah a scholarship so that she could excel both in sports as a world champion and in her education," he said when met by Bernama here.


He said the sponsorship had helped ease his financial burden, in addition to ensuring that his daughter could now fully focus on pursuing her ambitions of being a world champion and earning a degree.

Yesterday, YSD chairman Tunku Tan Sri Imran Tuanku Ja'afar presented the five-year scholarship to Aaliyah who will pursue a Bachelor of Psychology degree at the Florida Southern College, a prestigious college with state-of-the-art facilities that has produced world-class ski athletes.

"Florida Southern College is the best in water skiing sports. They have emerged as champions several times before this and they also want Aaliyah to join them. We (the family) are so proud that YSD supported her and the college wanted her as well," said Hanifah.

Meanwhile, Hanifah said he would be following Aaliyah's progress from here, while a coach from Chile, Lary Gisler, who had been training his daughter ever since she was a child, would monitor her performance in Florida, including the championships she would be participating in.

Aaliyah began dabbling in water skiing at the age of five and earned her first gold medal at the 2011 SEA Games when she was eight years old.


She is currently ranked first in Asia in the slalom, tricks, jumps, and overall categories, and ranks third in the world (under-21) in the overall and tricks categories.

In March 2023, Aaliyah will start her campaign in the Moomba Masters in Melbourne, Australia and participate in two U-21 world championships in Mexico in June before competing at the world open championships in Florida in Oct.

-- BERNAMA