Athletes from 34 countries are now on site here in Santiago Chile to compete for a coveted place in this weekend's Finals for Slalom, Tricks and Jump. Throughout this week, the live Webcast of these Waterski World Championships can be viewed at www.IWWF.tv
Rarely have we seen such excellent Waterski competition conditions. The Lago Los Morros man-made lake, on the outskirts of Santiago, provides facilities which are amongst the best in the world and so performances are also expected to be exceptional. MasterCraft will provide the official boats and technical support for the entire championship event. With Official Practice completed on Monday, the remainder of the week will see all athletes chasing one of the 12 Finals places on Saturday and Sunday. On Tuesday, 59 will compete in Slalom and Tricks, on Wednesday, 83 will compete in Jump and Slalom, Thursday will be a Tricks day with 60 on the water and Friday will be exclusively Jump with 61 athletes involved. The top 12 will then take on the Finals battle for the medals on Saturday and Sunday. Apart from the Webcast, live scores can be followed throughout on:
https://www.iwwfed-ea.org/competition.php?cc=T-13IWWF03&page=TimeTable
These World Waterski Championships are also unusual. All current World Champions are on site this time to defend their titles. These include Thomas Degasperi (ITA) and Whitney McClintock (CAN) in Slalom, Aliaksei Zharnasek and Natallia Berdnikava (BLR) in Tricks, and Freddy Krueger USA and Natallia Berdnikava (BLR) again in Jump. The Overall title holders Adam Sedlmajer (CZE) and Natalia Berdnikava (BLR) will also defend these titles. However, just today, Nate Smith (USA) had a new World Slalom record of 2.5 buoys on the 9.75m line approved, Erika Lang USA had a new World Tricks Record approved last week of 10,180 points and Regina Jaquess (USA) set the Women?s World Slalom Record in July of 3.5 buoys on the 10.25m line. None of these is a current World Champion. In other words, the reigning World Champions will have a very tough job to hang on to those medals! This will make it a fascinating event and one not to miss on the live Webcast.
The President of the Chilean Olympic Committee, Mr Nevin Ilic, will be on site to witness what promises to be a very exciting World Championships. Also on site will be the latest inductees to the International Hall of Fame Lucky Lowe (USA), Nadine de Villiers (RSA), Bill Bowness (USA) and Ron Fergusson (AUS). Their inauguration? will be on Thursday in Santiago.
