USA dominates thrilling IWWF Waterski World Championships in Paris, as rising young stars also make a major impact
As so often happens, the best will always rise to the top. Yet again, this proved to be the case. While rain and wind played their part during some of these IWWF 2017 World Waterski Championships, at the end of the day, experience and skill took the medals. Two World Championships Records were also set.
The French Waterski & Wakeboard Federation, under the direction of President Patrice Martin, brought elegance not just to the Championships themselves, but also to the IWWF Congress and the International Hall of Fame Ceremony held during the same week.
On the water, USA had a gold medal feast this year in taking the titles in Team Overall, Women Overall, Women Slalom and Men Tricks. While Canada took the Team Overall title in 2015, their total of just two gold medals made an impact. France on the other hand, pulled their 2015 Team position up from third place to second this time at the Choisy-le-Roi competition site in Paris.
For the Women, superb performances were many. Early in the week, defending World Overall Champion Regina Jaquess (USA) set a new IWWF World Championships Slalom Record of one buoy on the short 10.25m line - just 2.5 buoys short of her own World Slalom Record. Her tally of six World Records since 2009 proves her consistency.
In fact, her performances throughout were so good that she powered the USA team to eventually taking that Team Overall Gold Medal. She was on the Podium in Women Slalom, Women Jump and Women Overall. Also of special note was Canada’s Neilly Ross. At just 16 years of age, her Tricks Finals score of 10,220 points was just 390 points short of a World Record.
In Jump, Australia’s Jacinta Carroll continued to enthral. She dominated these World Championships no matter what weather conditions prevailed and set a new World Championships Jump Record. In effect, she is now five meters beyond her competitors. This year alone, the Nautique-sponsored athlete has outperformed all not just in these World Championships, but also in the US Masters, Moomba Masters and others.
For the Men, there were several highs and some lows here in Choisy-le-Roi. In Slalom, Frederick Winter (GBR) was the only one to achieve a Finals score on the 10.25m line. Having equalled Andy Mapple’s European Record in 2014 of one buoy on the 9.75m line, he was clearly overwhelmed by his victory and title of IWWF World Slalom Champion. Not so fortunate earlier as they battled weather conditions to qualify for the Finals were Jonathan Travers (USA), Joel Howley (AUS), Stephen Neveu (CAN) and others.
In Tricks, Adam Pickos (USA) is clearly following his father Cory’s footsteps who set 23 World Tricks Records in his career. Adam took the IWWF World Tricks title in 2015 with 11,210 points and retained it in style this time with a score of 11,570 points. In Jump, all waited for the climax – the battle between Ryan Dodd (CAN) and Freddy Krueger (USA). Krueger has set eight World Jump Records since 1999.
Dodd, sponsored by Nautique, set one just two months ago but it was an extraordinary 77.4m. He also this year won the US Masters and is the defending IWWF World Jump Champion. Krueger took the lead here with a distance of 65.9m, three meters better than all at that point. Dodd as last into the arena. His very first Jump was 68.4m. and his World Jump Champion title defence was a success. The magic created by these two outstanding athletes, Dodd and Krueger, continues !
Finally, there was a special and emotional moment when Felipe Miranda (CHI) repeated his 2013 Overall performance to again become the 2017 World Overall Waterski Champion. Regina Jaquess (USA) also successfully defended her title.
The 2017 IWWF Waterski World Championships were exclusively towed by the Ski Nautique 200 boat.
ALL RESULTS
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About the IWWF: The International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation (IWWF) is the world governing body for towed watersports and has 91 affiliated Federations world-wide. It was founded in 1946 in Geneva, Switzerland. It is recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as the sole authority for Waterski and Wakeboard. The IWWF is an affiliate member of the Association of IOC Recognized International Sports Federation (ARISF). The IWWF’s sports disciplines include, amongst others, Tournament Waterskiing (slalom, tricks & jump), Wakeboard, Cable Wakeboard, Cable Waterskiing, Disabled Waterskiing, Show Skiing, Ski Racing and Barefoot Waterskiing.