British Water Skiers on the Podium Yet Again

Canadian water skier Drew Ross managed to overcome the assault of the British water skiers at the French Masters, one of water skiing’s grand slam events.   A trio of skiers from the Lottery backed British squad qualified for the slalom final in 2^nd= place but it was Ross who set an early pace with a score of 5.50 buoys on the same 10.75 metre rope length.   Fresh from a new personal best in the B final of the jump Lincolnshire’s Will Asher fell early on the 11.25m rope which left Glenn Campbell and the reigning European Slalom Champion, Jodi Fisher, to take up the challenge.   Both repeated their scores of the previous day, just 0.50 of a buoy behind Ross to tie again for 2^nd place.

On home water France’s Geraldine Jamin proved a class apart in the women’s slalom final winning by a margin of 4 buoys ahead of Americans Rhoni Barton and Nathalie Hamrick, who scored 3.00 and 2.50 buoys respectively on the 11.25m metre line.

Fresh from a new European Jump Record of 67.8 metres the previous weekend Jason Seels, the reigning European Jump Champion, qualified for the final in first place and was set a target of 67.2 metres (220 feet) by American Scot Ellis.   Seels again produced a consistent set of jumps, recording a longest distance of 66.6 metres to clinch 2^nd place in the Overall competition and third place in the Jump event just behind Jesper Cassoe’s (DEN) 66.8 metres.   Byelorussian Elena Milakova took the women’s jump title with a distance of 49.9 metres and with that also tied up the Overall competition ahead of American Rhoni Barton.

Once again British skiers dominated the podium at one of the sport’s major titled events.

FRENCH MASTERS, LACANAU 6/7 JULY 2002

Open Ladies Slalom Results

Open Men Slalom Results