The three Yoong siblings led by Aaliyah Yoong Hanifah will leave for Madrid this weekend to compete in the 2018 IWWF Junior Waterski World Championship scheduled for 1st to 5th August 2018.
Aaliyah who turned 15 yesterday will be competing in her third Junior Worlds.
The 2017 SEA Games triple gold medallist will compete in tricks, slalom, jump and overall and is looking forward to be in the top 5 for tricks and for overall.
Aiden Yoong Hanifah age 12 who qualified higher than 2017 Kuala Lumpur SEA Games men gold medallist Adam age 10 will both compete in the tricks event.
The two boys’ target is to get into the top 15 in the world and gain more experience in an atmosphere of highly charged world level competitions.
Malaysian Waterski & Wakeboard Federation’s head coach Hanifah Yoong said, “Aaliyah will be 17 in the next junior worlds to be held in Florida in 2020 and that is our target year for her to mount the world podium. But when you are ranked in the top 5 in the world anything can happen in Madrid,”
“To get onto the podium this year will be a huge surprise and knowing Aaliyah as I do, I think she is going for it,” added Hanifah.
The team had been training past month and a half in Putrajaya since returning from the Florida training and competition stint where Aaliyah was second in the US Masters girls tricks and both Aiden & Adam achieved personal bests in tricks in the Florida Inboards tournament.
The National Sports Council Malaysia sponsors the MWWF athletes for this trip to compete in Madrid’s 2018 junior worlds.
