Aaliyah invited to World Games, heads to Florida for training stint

KUALA LUMPUR - National water skier Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah has been by the International Waterski and Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) to compete in the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama, in the United States from July 7 to 17.

Aaliyah,18, in a statement shared by the Malaysian Waterski and Wakeboard Federation, said she was one of eight skiers who have earned the right to compete in the women’s tricks event.

She is also one of two Asian women skiers, the other being Japan’s Saaya Hirosawa, who will compete in the jump event.

"Despite the many gaps in training over the past two years due to the Covid-19 situation, I feel that I am now back on the right track and making progress again after getting consistent training once again.

"I believe I can ski at the Top 10 level in the open women’s tricks category and in the overall category. It’s just that the American, South American and European skiers have a lot more competitions each month compared to me, which is why they are ranked higher,” she said.

Aaliyah said she was looking forward to being in the top five spots in the World Games and definitely will try her best to improve in order to give her rankings a boost.

In order to get herself prepped and ready for the World Games, Aaliyah will depart to Florida on June 9, where she will be based at the Pickos Waterski School and train under former world champion and world record holder Cory Pickos.

Accompanying Aaliyah will be her regular coach Larry Gisler who will fly from Santiago, Chile to join her in the US.

For a warm-up, Aaliyah is also slotted to compete in two tournaments at the Lake Grew Polk City, Florida (June 18-19) and the West Palm Beach, Florida (June 25-26).

"So for the two tournaments in Florida prior to the World Games, I’m solely aiming to ski to near or better than my best scores to get me back up on the rankings list and to improve my world ranking position,” she said.

Aaliyah will be mainly looking to improve on her tricks’ personal best of 7,680 which she last set during the Asian Championships in 2019.

Last May, the Malaysian water skier continued to excel in Australia when she bagged the Women's Open overall gold medal in the Moomba Masters Championships 2022 in Melbourne. - BERNAMA