PETALING JAYA: Waterskier Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah is ready to mark another career milestone at the World Games in the United States.
Earning an invite to the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama from July 7-17 is definitely a great honour for Aaliyah as only the best skiers in the world will be there to compete.
Aaliyah is one of eight skiers who will compete in the women’s tricks event and she will be joined by Japan’s Saaya Hirosawa as the only two Asian skiers in the jump event.
“I would be really happy if I can finish within the top five in the World Games,” she said. Her personal best score in women tricks is 7,680 which was set during the Asian Championships in 2019.
Aaliyah will be based in Florida and will take part in two tournaments at the Lake Grew Polk City (June 18-19) and the West Palm Beach (June 25-26) as part of her preparations.
“The goal in the two tournaments in Florida is to ski near or better than my best scores to get me back up on the rankings list and improve on my world ranking,” she said.
She will leave on June 9 and will be based in the Pickos Waterski School for a month and will be accompanied by her regular coach, Larry Gisler who will fly from Santiago, Chile, to join her in the US.
She will be trained by Cory Pickos, a former world champion and world record holder.
“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,” said the 18-year-old.
“But I’m definitely in the top five for the Under-21 category and I can definitely still improve in order to give my ranking a boost,” she said.
Aaliyah is definitely looking more confident after winning four gold and two bronze medals in the Moomba Masters, in Melbourne, Australia in March this year.
“Despite the many gaps in training over the past two years due to the Covid-19 situation, I feel that I am now back in the right track and making progress after getting consistent training once again.”
