Aiden blazes his way to gold and bronze
Yoong Hanifah was in splashing form as he grabbed a gold and a bronze at the Asian Waterski and Wakesport Championships in Thailand.
Aiden, who turns 14 next month, skied to the boys’ Under17 tricks title on Wednesday with 5,150 points to top the six-skier final.
His mark was below his personal best of 5,680 points but it was enough to pip South Korea’s silver medallist Ju Seong Min (4,970).
Aiden’s effort, however, was a brand new Asian Junior record, erasing the old mark of 4,270 set by Indonesia’s Dimas Ridho Suprihono in 2017.
His brother, Adam only scored 3,080 points after hurting himself during his slalom run. But he still managed to settle for the bronze.
In slalom, Aiden also achieved a new personal best with a run of 2 buoys/58kmh/16m rope in finishing ninth while Adam did a 1/58/16 for 10th place.
His fine performances in the slalom and the top-draw effort in tricks also helped Aiden to a bronze in the overall event.
He finished with a score of 1,956.11, behind gold medallist Seong Min (2,934.97) and Kim Min Kyu (2,175.62).
Aiden’s sister Aaliyah, 16, is on track for a sweep of all four open women individual titles after a strong preliminary run.
Aaliyah showed consistency to top the field in tricks in the preliminary round with 7,680, surpassing her previous Asian record of 7,440 and Asian Championships record of 7,250.
To top it off, it was also a personal best for the teenager, erasing her previous best of 7,600.
“It’s definitely the start that I expected. My goal in the preliminaries was to try and get a new personal best, so I'm glad to get that down early,” said Aaliyah.
Not contented with just doing well in tricks, Aaliyah showed her versatility as a three-event skier as she led the field in both slalom and jump as well.
She set a pace of 2/55/12 in slalom to lead South Korea’s Han Ah Reum and Lee Hye Rim, who finished joint second with 3.5/55/13.
Aaliyah then completed a jump of 36.9m to narrowly lead Japan’s Harue Kamiya (36m) and Moe Sadamizu (34.9m).
The tricks final will be held today, followed by the slalom and jump finals tomorrow.