Aaliyah Wins Three Golds At IWWF University World Championship

KUALA LUMPUR, March 2 (Bernama) --  National waterskier Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah kicked off the 2025 season in style by clinching three gold medals at the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) University World Championship in Auckland, New Zealand.

In the championship held from Feb 26 until today, the 21-year-old secured gold in the women’s jump event with a 44.7-metre leap in the final, beating favourite Lili Steiner of Austria, who managed 43.5m, while New Zealand’s Lily Meade took bronze with a 41.5m jump.

Aaliyah continued her stellar performance by winning her second gold in the women’s tricks event with an impressive score of 7,970 points, defeating another strong contender, Canada’s Hannah Stopnicki (5,760 points), and Australia’s Layne Moroney, who took bronze (5,050 points).

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In the slalom final, Aaliyah finished in sixth place with a score of 2.00/55kph/12.00m.

With two gold medals in jump and tricks, along with her sixth-place finish in slalom, Aaliyah secured her third gold medal in the overall category with a total score of 2,863.64 points.

Steiner won silver in the overall category, while Lily Meade took bronze.

“That first gold in jump felt awesome. I knew a world championship win would come one day since 13 years ago when I won the 2011 SEA Games gold in women’s tricks at eight,” she said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, national head coach Hanifah Yoong expressed surprise at the results, as the Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (MWWF) had initially set a best-case target of a gold in the overall category and a podium finish in jump and tricks.

“We are very happy for Aaliyah as these results took away the huge pressure she had placed on herself in the past year and a half since winning third in jump at the Under-21 (U-21) World Championship in Mexico in 2023,” he added.

–- BERNAMA