Aaliyah cracks her Asian tricks record in Florida

KUALA LUMPUR: National waterskier Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah renewed her own Asian record in the tricks event with a scintillating performance at the Swiss Pro Tricks tournament in Florida on Sunday (early Monday in Malaysia).

The 20-year-old scored 8,450 points to better the previous Asian Open women's tricks record of 8,080 points.

However, the new Asian feat was not enough for Aaliyah to clinch a podium finish, ending in fourth place among 10 participants in the invitational tournament for the world's top skiers.

The 2014 Women's Trick World Champion Erika Lang of the United States claimed the title with 11,030 points, followed by 2017 World Champion Neilly Ross (10,370) of Canada and another home representative Anna Gay (9,390).

Aaliyah, who won bronze at the Under-21 World Championships in Mexico, last year, however, was elated with the performance after being unable to showcase her best in the tricks event throughout last year, as she had to juggle between waterski and studies in pursuing Bachelor's Degree in Psychology at Florida Southern College.

“Concentrating in my studies is one thing, but doing three events is also really hard to apportion my training time to tricks, jump and slalom but with this performance I really look forward to better progress in all my three events if possible.

“This year is an important year for my preparation for the 2025 SEA Games (in Thailand) and the 2025 IWWF Open World Championships," she said in a statement.