Random stuff…
2009 World Water Ski Championships
Epic end to a great Worlds…
Aug 10th
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It was the Day of Destiny for the main Men’s World Overall Contenders and it was an epic battle battle all the way to the end between Javier Julio, Adam Sedlmayer and Jaret Llewellyn.
- Men’s Jump: Javier took control of the battle with an improved score of 10,330 points while the others weren’t able to improve. In the meantime, Belarus were creating some history of their own with Aliaksei Zharnosek winning the trick event ahead of Oleg Deviatovski and Herman Beliakou.
- Women’s Slalom: Karen Truelove set the bar pretty high, but left the door wide open with 0.5@10.75m. Karina Nowlan equaled it a short while afterwards but then Anais Amade boosted the top score to 1.25@10.75m. Whitney McClintock then did what she needed to in front of the home crowd and scored 1.5 buoys to win her second and third gold medal (overall) of these championships.
- Men’s Jump: Javier was one of the first of the dock and put himself into an overall lead with a leap of 63.0m – two meters more than his opening round distance. Adam was unable to come anywhere near that distance, which left Jaret needing a 70.3m to win not only the jump title (after Freddy Krueger flew 70.2m) but the overall crown as well. Try as he might, he could not get the jump he that he needed and Javier was crowned the World Overall Champions….
Well that’s it – thank for you support and I hope to do this some other time….
Title regained – new Queen of Tricks….
Aug 9th
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Once the situation regarding the Men’s Jump was resolved with the completion of the Prelims, it was time to focus on the finals of Women’s Tricks, Men’s Slalom and Women’s Jump. The action in those finals, shown on ESPN360.com, was nothing short of spectacular.
- Whitney McClintock battled her way to the Women’s World Trick Title scoring a tie for the World Championship record with 8740 points. This put her well in front of young French star Iris Cambray with 8400 and Maria Linares with 8290.
- Will Asher put the dismal performance of the 2007 World Championships behind him to record his second World Slalom Championship, totalling 3@10.25m (41′ off) to defeat Thomas DeGasperi (1@10.25m) and perennial 3rd place finisher Chris Rossi who wiped out before the exit gates at 10.75m for 5.5 buoys.
- Angeliki Andriopoulou exemplified toughness by taking her third consecutive World Jump title in row with her last jump of 53.7m. June Fladburg came up short with a distance of 51.1m while her Danish compatriot Maj Lund Jepsen was extremely happy to finish on the podium just 10 centimeters back.
So the final day beckons – the tournament is perfectly poised with all the heavy hitters in the overall race in both trick and jump finals. Watch out for fireworks from Llewellyn as tries to fend off a big challenge from both Adam Sedlmayer and Javier Julio….
Saturday, Saturday….
Aug 8th
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With the Men’s Jump competition being carried over to Saturday Morning, some of the skiers concerned were gracious enough to give their thoughts on the events that took place yesterday. If you have sensitive ears to controversy, you’ll be best advised not to watch these videos – but you know you want to!!
Sick to my stomach….
Aug 8th
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After the great action that took place during Men’s Slalom and Women’s Jump, nothing prepared either me or Tadd Schreiber for what happened in the finals series of the Men’s Jump preliminary round…
- Lance Green (NZE) – Trying to take it huge on one of his attempts and barely making it on the ramp. Sent out the front and crashed big time. A little shaken but otherwise ok after that.
- Rodrigo Miranda (CHI) – good opener but tried to push it a little too hard and went out the front on the second attempt. Tough as nails, he carried on to the last attempt and still jumped well enough to give himself a good chance of making it though to the finals.
- Felipe Miranda (CHI) – After frustrating efforts on the opening two jumps and needing to land his final jump to score, took a big wipeout the back and was injured as a result. From initial reports, he sustained a broken femur.
- Sebastian de Pasqua (SUI) – took a huge digger OTF and was immediately carted off on a backboard. Thankfully the reports received suggest that he’s ok; in fact we was a little perturbed about being administered the oxygen mask.
- Damien Sharman (GBR) – refused the first jump and crashed OTF on the second attempt. He was ok and fully prepared to jump again, but one of his jump broke in the fall.
- At this point the Official stopped the tournament. After meeting with Team Captains, it was determined that the event will continue on with Damien’s last attempt with a warm-up to precede it. Nothing was found to be wrong with the ramp, the boat or anything else associated with the technical side of the event.
Congrats to the event finalists from Men’s Slalom (esp. after the 8-way run-off to two final spots) and Women’s Jump. Look forward to seeing them their thing in the finals….
So….Men’s Jump’s starts up again at 10am this Morning (Saturday). Hope to have a report and some more videos then.
P.S. Spoke with Marie Vympranietsova (GRE) and she is still prepared to go out and jump in the finals despite seriously tweaking her right knee on the final jump in the prelims – certainly braver than me I can tell you…
Day 4 – Men’s Slalom…
Aug 7th
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With the high level of slalomers here at the World’s, a run-off situation was always on the cards and that was the case here. The usual suspects made it through to the finals right from the get-go, but it took a run-off to decide the final two places after eight skiers tied for 3@10.75m. Fabio Ianni and Jean Bapiste Faisy came through to join Chris Parrish, Will Asher, Frederic Halt, Thomas DeGasperi, Aaron Larkin, Nick Parsons, Chris Rossi, Jodi Fisher and Terry Winter.
Women’s Jump carries on from this event followed by Men’s Jump – I’ll have some some video and reportage after that…
Day 3 – a late start but a long day…
Aug 7th
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To accommodate the IWSF World Congress, Thursday’s skiing didn’t start until 13:00 which made for a long afternoon and evening of skiing for the Women Slalomers and Men Trickers – especially considering the run-off at the end of slalom.
No doubt you’ll have checked the results from the scorers,but the competition from the women was exceptionally tight. I came down to a score of more than halfway down 11.25m to make it through to the final and there were a few shocks. Gone are Reigning Champion Nicole Arthur, World Record Holder Kristi Overton Johnson and April Coble Eller and in their places are the likes Claire Lise Welter, Hanna Edeback and Breanne Wagner who quite literally skiied out of her skin to a new PB of 1@10.75m to send the crowd into pandemonium. Eventually that score was eclipsed by Whitney McClintock with 2 but what a great start by the Canadian Women slalomers.
Men’s Tricks – as the event went on it was looking more and more like a game of attrition with skiers such as Nicolas Le Forestier, Joel Wing and Felipe Miranda finding that out to their cost. At this time the scores haven’t been made official, but skiers placed towards the top should feel comfortable about their chances of making it through to the next round. Jimmy Siemers seems to be well placed to do some damage in the Men’s Trick final.
Men’s Slalom and the remainder of the jump competition go on today – expect another run-off for slalom…..