While much of the attention was on her senior Eilisha Rania Abrar Raj, Yiat Qing, who often dives in the 3m springboard, rose to the occasion as she claimed gold at the Morodok Techo Aquatics Centre.

The Kuala Lumpur-born athlete amassed 253.80 points to finish ahead of silver medallist Bui Thi Hong Giang of Vietnam (242.20 points).

Gladies Lariesa Garina Haga of Indonesia took bronze (228.00 points).

It was a day to forget for Eilisha after her poor fourth dive dented her bid for a podium finish alongside Yiat Qing.

She scored 227.05 points to finish fourth out of seven divers.

Yiat Qing did not expect to take home gold as she is relatively new to platform events.

“I usually compete in the 3m springboard but for the SEA Games, I was picked to compete in the platform event and started training last December,” she said.

“I did not think too much of it, I just did what I could here. Today’s performance was really good, I did not expect to do this great. It is the biggest win in my career so far. I am happy and proud that all my hard work paid off.”

Asked whether today’s victory could be a turning point for her to switch to platform events, she did not write such a possibility off and is even considering diving in both events.

Moving forward, she hopes to compete in the 2028 Olympic Games in Los Angeles.

Yiat Qing’s sweet achievement today puts the national diving camp closer to extending its domination in Cambodia after winning two golds via Kimberly Bong in the women’s 3m springboard individual and Syafiq Puteh in the men’s 3m springboard individual.

In the last day of diving tomorrow, Malaysia will field two more divers – Bertrand Rhodict Anak Lises and Enrique Maccartney Harold – in the men’s 10m platform in hopes of completing a clean sweep of all four golds offered at the 2023 SEA Games.