Aaliyah shines in Australia with gold, bronze feat in Moomba Masters
KUALA LUMPUR - National water skier Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah continued to excel in Australia when she bagged the women's Open overall gold medal in the Moomba Masters Championships 2022 in Melbourne on Sunday.
The 18-year-old captured the gold medal after accumulating 2,668.52 points. Chile's Gonzalez Valentina (2,323.40 pts) and New Zealand's Willian Courtney (2,082.85pts) took silver and bronze respectively.
Aaliyah also won a bronze in the women's Open tricks event after obtaining 7,050 points in the final held at the Yarra River. Canadian Ross Neilly took gold with 10,390 points while American Lang Erika (10,260 pts) claimed silver.
The Malaysian, however, missed out on the podium in the women's Open jump event when she finished fourth with a leap of 39.1 metres (m) to end up behind gold medallist Caroll Jacinta (58.5m) of Australia, silver medallist Valentina (45.7m) and bronze medallist Casey Wooderson (43.0m), also of Australia.
In the slalom event, Aaliyah ended up in ninth place after crashing out in the second round.
"The best Moomba Masters ever. It has certainly been an incredible week for me and the highlight has got to be taking third in women's Open tricks, that happens to be my first world-level podium finish in the Open category and I’m pleased about that.
"It was also good to produce two successive personal best jumps of 39.1m and 41.4m during the Junior Moomba (last week) to break the national record twice in two days. I’m definitely very happy with my performances here and this should give me added confidence for the future,” she said in a statement.
On March 10, she bagged three gold medals in the tricks and jump events as well as the overall category, besides earning a bronze in slalom in the Junior Moomba.
Meanwhile, Malaysian Waterski and Wakeboard Federation (MWWF) head coach Hanifah Yoong was pleased with the progress shown by Aaliyah.
"This is the coming-of-age acid test for Aaliyah and she proved her competitiveness at the world level by getting into the finals of tricks and jump in the Open category. She also proved that she is becoming more independent and can manage an event by herself after traveling to Melbourne on her own,” he said. - BERNAMA
