2011 Nautique IWWF Asian Waterski & Wakeboard Championships

Friday, October 7, 2011
Posted by Chris

img_2111.JPGIt was again an overcast morning when the first skier took to the water in the open ladies slalom preliminary round. However it was not long before patches of blue sky appeared and the sun broke through.

Second off the dock having rounded six buoys at 55kph, Malaysia’s Phillipa Yoong was the first to shorten the rope to 16m and scored 3.5 buoys. Kalya Kee (SIN), having successfully completed her first pass and seemingly rounded four buoys on her third pass, was then deemed to have missed the entry gates at the start of her second pass. Only Saaya Hirosawa (JPN) came close to catching Yoong scoring 2.5 buoys on a 16m line.

 Sasha Christian (SIN), more normally associated with wakeboarding, laced on her slalom ski finishing fifth out of eleven to earn herself a place in the pool of six going through to the finals.

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22 skiers competed in the mens slalom. In Series 2 Hong Kong’s Caleb Knight, with a personal best of 4.5 buoys at 58 kph, set the early pace until Ahmed Alneaimi and Saeed Alzaabi (UAE) both equaled his score to earn themselves a place in the finals.

Jonathon Cannon (HKG) was less successful, having suffered an unrelated back injury, he failed to live up to expectations and bowed out early. Sunjiro Hagama (JPN) scored 2.5 buoys at 58kph on a 13 metres line which was improved upon by two Korean skiers See Hyung Kim and Dongeon Kim.

It was left to the final skier Salvadore Chiha of (LIB) to again improve on this with 5 buoys on a 13m line and have the honour of being last off the dock amongst the 12 men going into the finals.    img_2111.JPG

 

Once again 8-year old Aaliyah Yoong Hannifah (MAS) put in a credible performance with a score of 2690 points to beat her elder sister and make it into the last six going into final. Joining her are the three Japanese ladies with Saaya Hirosawa scoring 3410. Top of the preliminary round was Yu Fei Soong (CHN) with 4860 points.

Former F1 driver Alex Yoong returned to the water but missed out in the final cut. There was much expectation to watch wakeboard rider Padiwat Jaemjan strap on his trick ski and perform some entertaining tricks to much applaud from spectators but just fell short of qualifying amongst the top ten finals. Again China’s skier Long Fei Shi continues to dominate mens tricks with 4380 and earn last spot off the dock in the finals.

The jump competition continues tomorrow Friday followed by the first rounds of wakeboardYoong was the first to shorten the rope to 16m and scored 3.5 buoys. Kyla Kee (SIN) having successfully completed her first pass and seemingly rounded four buoys on her third pass was then deemed to have missed the entry gates at the start of her second pass. Only Saaya Hirosawa (JPN) came close to catching Yoong scoring 2.5 buoys on a 16m line.

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Sasha Christian (SIN), more normally associated with wakeboarding, laced on her slalom ski finishing fifth out of eleven to earn herself a place in the pool of six going through to the finals.

22 skiers competed in the mens slalom. In Series 2 Hong Kong’s Caleb Knight, with a personal best of 4.5 buoys at 58 kph, set the early pace until Ahmed Alneaimi and Saeed Alzaabi (UAE) both equaled his score to earn themselves a place in the finals.

Jonathon Cannon (HKG) was less successful, having suffered an unrelated back injury, he failed to live up to expectations and bowed out early. Sunjiro Hagama (JPN) scored 2.5 buoys at 58kph on a 13 metres line which was improved upon by two Korean skiers  See Hyung Kim and Dongeon Kim

It was left to the final skier Salvadore Chiha of (LIB) to again improve on this with 5 buoys on a 13m line and have the honour of being last off the dock amongst the 12 men going into the finals.

The jump competition continues tomorrow Friday followed by the first rounds of wakeboard 

 


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