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FALL IN WOMEN TRICKS AT WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS MEANS 24th FOR AALIYAH IN WOMEN TRICKS

MEXICO: Malaysian water skier Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah fell short of her target with an early fall on her hand pass but recovered with an excellent run in her toe pass to finish 24th in her third Waterski World Championships with 3,880 points.

The 12-year-old, Aaliyah although improving her past 2 Worlds positions of 36th (held in 2011 in Russia) and 27th (held in 2013 in Chile) thus fell short of her target to finish 20th at her third Worlds.

“She had prepared for this Worlds with a 6430 points run which she practiced satisfactory on Monday at this Boca Laguna ski site in Chapala, Mexico, but 3 days of not tricking before the women tricks preliminary round could not have helped her as she is still very young and she needs more experience to be as good as the pro skiers..” said Hanifah Yoong.

“Unlike past years’ results where she found it easier to stand up in her trick runs in most of her competitions, 2015 had not been a great year for Aaliyah in tricks except for the 2015 SEA Games gold medal win in Singapore earlier this year in June,”

“She had gained good progress in slalom and jump so had gone up in rankings in Asia for the overall discipline but for tricks (with a current PB of 6290 points), she had a little problem in getting near to the 7000 points level which was the target for her for end 2015,”

“I attribute this to her sudden growth spurt past 6 months and the transition that she is making in using larger trick skis plus the fact that she now needs to reconcile with greater power to drive her heavier and bigger frame.”

“This is her final event for this season and her next event is not until March 2016 so we have time to work with her on her basics in tricks during this break.” concluded Hanifah.

Aaliyah’s response after her run in the women tricks event, "Not a good run for me at the 2015 Worlds. Falling early in my hand pass is not what I had set out to do after traveling half the globe to be here in Mexico. I have work to do in the coming break from skiing in competitions."

Results here: http://iwwfed-ea.org/classic/15IWWF02/

Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah Wraps Up Final Day With Her First Double Medal Outing In Asian Championship

The 12 year old Malaysian protégé Aaliyah won her second silver medal in the open women overall discipline after the conclusion of the finals in women slalom and women jump events today.

This was totally unexpected as she is only currently ranked 5th in Asia behind two Japanese skiers, Saaya Hirosawa and Harue Hutch Kamiya and two Korean skiers, Jang Da Hyeong and Kim Su Mi in the Asian women overall ranking list.

"I am very happy with my performances here in the Asian Championship," said Aaliyah.

"The upsides of the unexpected overall silver, my new PB in slalom and entering the finals for all 3 events more than made up for my disappointment in losing the tricks gold."

"I like to thank my brother Alex Yoong and my sister Phillipa Yoong for helping me out in the slalom and jump events, dad too in tricks. Really appreciate all the support from my mum, team mates and team officials as well as MSN and my other sponsors too." added Aaliyah.

Norzeela Sulaiman, Malaysian team manager summed up Malaysia's final tally of 2 golds, 2 silvers and 1 bronze as highly satisfactory surpassing her pre-event forecast of just 2 golds, saying, "The entire team gave their all and our Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (MWWF) cannot ask for more."

The Malaysian team's participation is sponsored by National Sports Council of Malaysia, Nautique Boats USA, Reflex Skis, MWWF and Waterski & Wakeboard World Cup Sdn. Bhd.

The 12-year-old had suffered from back spasm and withdrew from the jump event. But that was not enough to put off the plucky Aaliyah, who scored 5,150 points to take gold at the Putrajaya Watersport Complex yesterday.

It was a superb yet coolly done achievement for Aaliyah who adds this gold to the two golds she won at the SEA Games in Singapore in June.

Indonesia’s Nur Alimah Priambodo, who took silver in Singapore, again settled for silver as she was unable to top Aaliyah’s score, finishing with just 3,180 points. A second Indonesian - Heriyanti, took the bronze with 2,260 points.

There were more medals for Aaliyah as she also took a silver in slalom, finishing second behind Ummuh Thoyibhatus Sholikah of Indonesia.

The same Indonesian girl had also won the silver at the SEA Games and she managed to clear one buoy on a 13m rope. In contrast Aaliyah managed to round two buoys but settled for silver as she went on a longer 16m rope.

“I think it was a good outing for me today as I’m still working on my main objectives ... which is to improve on my rankings when I compete in the World Championships in Mexico next month,” said Aaliyah.

“I’m learning new tricks with a few more flips during training and today’s score was just nice. In training I’m averaging 6,500 points and I’m still working on keeping that consistent during competitions,” added Aaliyah.

In the men’s events, 17-year-old Syahir Nasir continued to show improvement by taking silver in slalom behind Indonesia’s Agung Sulaksono. He was the only Malaysian male competitor to finish with a medal in the open events as Indonesia dominated the field.

Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah's gold medal today in women overall adds to her gold in women tricks and a silver in jump. She thus sets another record to be the youngest double gold medal winner in the 50 years history of the SEAP/SEA Games at age 11.

Aaliyah also has the distinction to be the youngest SEA Games record holder with 6110 points in women tricks which she recorded today.

Alex Yoong won 1 silver in men overall today to add on to the 2 bronzes he won in men jump and men slalom. He maintains a clean record of winning medals in all 3 SEA Games he took part in 1997, 2011 and 2015.

Aiden Yoong Hanifah, age 9 became the youngest medal winner in the 28th SEA Games when he won bronze in men tricks 2 days ago.

Total waterski medals (7):

2 golds (Aaliyah women overall and women jump).

2 silvers (Aaliyah women jump, Alex men overall).

3 bronzes (Aiden Yoong Hanifah men tricks, Alex men slalom, Alex men jump).

Well done all athletes, officials and coaches! It was a great SEA Games for us, made possible by the best teamwork ever had experienced before.

Thank you all team members, ISN, MSN, OCM, CDM and all their team members.

We had a little tournament for our future Malaysian skiers today where they all had the excitement of competing with our SEA Games athletes who in turn used this tournament as a tune-up to prime themselves ready for the 2015 SEA Games in Singapore.

Our SEA Games Waterski Team will be leaving on Tuesday 09 June from Marina Putrajaya at 8am.

Click for Results

Click for Hi-res photos:

Team Malaysia Waterski & Wakeboard	Team Malaysia Jump	Team Malaysia pose
Aaliyah Jump Suit	Waterski - Aaliyah Yoong	Alex Jump Suit
Waterski - Syahir Nasir	Wakeboard - Cheah Hsu Ann	Wakeboard - Jeff Oh
Waterski - Aiden Yoong	Wakeboard - Adam Yoong	Waterski - Alex Yoong
Team - Norzeela Sulaiman	Coach - Larry Gisler (CHI)	Team Manager - Hanifah Yoong
Team - Roland Tan	Coach - Al Fisal	Alex slaloming
Aaliyah slaloming	Aaliyah jumping	Alex preparing for jump

And the 11-year-old did it in style as she also broke the 20-year-old Asian record in the process. The pint-sized Aaliyah racked up 6,290 points in Bandung on Sunday to shatter the Asian record of 6,280 points set by China’s E Min in 1995.

Japan’s Saaya Hirosawa could only manage 3,610 points to take the silver. Homester Priambodo Nur Alimah amassed a 3,460 total for the bronze.

Aaliyah’s previous best score was 6,130 points, but she surpassed it twice in the championships. Earlier in the preliminary round on Saturday, she accumulated 6,150 points. She then added another 140 more points to her tally in Sunday’s final for her career-best score.

It was Aaliyah’s second appearance on the podium this season, having won the silver in the Under-17 category at the Moomba Masters in Melbourne earlier this month.

“I was actually much neater doing my tricks on Saturday, but I was slower.”

There was, however, agony for Arianna Chow, the other Malaysian representative. The 13-year-old finished second in the preliminary round to reach the final. But Arianna injured herself during the jump event and was forced to pull out in the tricks routine.

Malaysia's Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah exits the Open Women tricks competition after finishing 10th of 11 skiers when she suffered another fall on the same trick as suffered in the U17 Girls Tricks rd 2 two days ago.

She was bitterly disappointed today as she was looking forward to do better than that.

"We have some work to do for her hand run when we return as she needs to stand up till the end of the run so that she can score high with the two flip tricks she has," said Hanifah Yoong.

"She has to now be tricking faster than ever before so she needs to get back to stronger basics to avoid such falls. We have a week to work on that before the next event, the Indonesian Open to be held on 20-22 Mar." added Hanifah.

Credit is due to Aaliyah though for putting up best score of 6060 points for U17 girls as she squeaked in a big smile when she mounted the podium ceremony to receive her second runner up trophy for U17 girls tricks today.

Last year, the pint-sized Aaliyah finished second in the girls’ tricks event – behind reigning world champion and world record-holder Erika Lang of the US.

She went on to win the Asian Championships Under-17 title and take home a silver at the Asian Beach Games in the Open category last year.

She has also broken the 6,000-point barrier to set a new personal best of 6,130 points – just 230-point short of the 20-year Asian record of 6,360 set by China’s E Min in 1995.

Having received an invitation to compete at the Moomba meet for the second year running, 11-year-old Aaliyah is eyeing another podium finish in the girls’ category.

The Open category is certainly a daunting challenge for Aaliyah as several elite skiers – like Lang, Canada’s Whitney McClintock, Belarus’ Natalia Berdnikova, France’s Clementine Lucine and Australia’s Jacinta Carroll – are also in the fray.

Taken from http://www.thestar.com.my/Sport/Other-Sport/2015/02/28/Aaliyah-eyeing-another-good-outing-in-Moomba-Masters-in-Melbourne/

We are getting new boats, the 2015 Super Air Nautique G21 and another new 2015 Ski Nautique 200OB. These 2011 boats are up for grabs at very special prices with all upholstery to be rewrapped like new after sale confirmation.

Email hanifah@waterski.com.my

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