Young Malaysian skiers go fourth in Asian Beach Games

The national water ski and wakeboard team posing for a photo at the Asian Beach Games in Phuket on Saturday.

PETALING JAYA: The young Malaysian water skiers capped a successful Asian Beach Games outing by finishing a strong fourth in the team event.

Despite the absence of Arianna Chow, who missed the Games in Phuket with an injury, the team totalled 3224.08 points from both the slalom and tricks events.

South Korea, who are the more complete team in the Asian region, took the gold with 5333.92 points while Japan collected silver with 5125.95 points. Indonesia returned with the bronze on 4033.08 points.

It is still a creditable finish for a Malaysian team made up of teenagers, with only 11-year-old Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah and 16-year-old Syahir Nasir contributing points in the slalom event.

Aaliyah also had the pleasure of defeating nemesis Jiang Hui of China again in the final of the women’s tricks event.

Aaliyah, who finished with a silver in the individual event and achieved a new personal best of 6,130 points on Friday, piled up 5,120 points ahead of Jiang Hui, who only managed 3,690 points.

The triumph means Aaliyah has bested the 22-year-old Chinese in three out of their four meetings in Phuket.

Aaliyah’s nine-year-old brother Aiden also made a good contribution by setting a new personal best of 2,820 points in the men’s tricks event final.

The strong showing and improvements by the skiiers augur well ahead of the SEA Games in Singapore next June.

In the wakeboard category, Malaysia’s Cheah Hsu Ann and Jeff Oh helped the team to seventh placing.