Aaliyah First Asian to Place 8th In Overall at 2023 IWWF Waterski Worlds
Malaysia's Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah capped a strong showing at the 2023 IWWF World Waterski Championships held at Sunset Lakes, in Lake County Florida from Oct 10-15, 2023.
Aaliyah finished in 8th position in the women's overall which is the best ever achieved by any Asian waterski athlete She also reached her first final at the world meet in jump as she flew to a distance of 45.5 metres in the preliminary round on Saturday 14 Oct. That earned her a spot in the 12-skier jump final on Sunday while also placing her in the top 10 in overall with a 9th position. She then improved slightly in the final as she tallied a distance of 46.0m, just shy of her 47.2m personal best to move up to 8th in women overall.
Her effort didn't place her among the medals as she eventually finished 12th in the women's jump but it was still a strong effort from Aaliyah who had to balance studies at Florida Southern College while training.
On top of that, Aaliyah can also be pleased with her effort in tricks as she tallied of total of 7,130 points in the preliminaries.
It was the first time she had scored over 7,000 points in over a year and she was just unfortunate to miss out on the final after placing 13th. In slalom, she managed 2.5 buoys on the 12 metre line, 2 buoys off her slalom personal best, and un unfortunately didn’t advance to the final.
