PETALING JAYA: He is only 12, but Wan Ayden Faiq Wan Azizul Fitri showed he has the swagger of a seasoned champion by beating older competitors to the men's BMX flatland gold in the Malaysia Games (Sukma) on Friday (Aug 21).
Better known in the Selangor BMX community as "Bum Bum", the young rider was the undisputed star of the show at PJ Arena Skatepark.
He charmed the crowd with his chubby-cheeked grin between bursts of jaw-dropping tricks on two wheels.
As part of his entertaining act, Ayden would also pause for a two-second breather, thump his chest theatrically and whip the crowd into a frenzy, capping every session with a crisp salute to the judges.
Watching from the sidelines, his parents – father Wan Azizul Fitri Zulkifli and mother Noor Hafizah Abdullah – could barely contain their emotions as their son, a pupil at Sekolah Kebangsaan Sungai Kertas in Batu Caves, delivered the performance.
Ayden topped the show with 86.33 points across two heats while Penang's Mohd Daniel Qhalish Mohd Kasyidy took silver (81.33) and another Selangor rider Mohd Anwar Khairy claimed bronze (79.67).
True to his generation, Ayden's first instinct after being crowned champion was a plug, not a speech.
"Please make sure to follow my TikTok if you want to see more of my tricks. I am good there as well," he said with a grin.
"I feel happy. I didn't actually expect to win the gold – truthfully, I wasn't very confident," he admitted.
"Seeing so much competition, trying not to get nervous, wanting to stay consistent ... seeing older competitors rattled me a little bit. But I just kept fighting."
The boy who started riding when he was four was candid about his nickname.
"I used to be thin, but now I'm chubby like this, which is where it comes from," he laughed.
For his father, who doubles as his coach, the win is a dream years in the making.
"I already had a dream for him to achieve what I couldn't. I used to ride BMX too, but never got the opportunity," he said.
"I showed him flatland videos as a baby, then trained his mother to ride flatland when he was four. He watched, got competitive, tried it himself – and eventually beat us both."
