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Every Labour Day holiday weekend, always the second one of March, the Moomba Festival in Melbourne Australia attracts over one million visitors during the four day programme. The highlight for many is the Moomba Masters Waterski and Wakeboard competition. Held on the Yarra River against the backdrop of towering skyscrapers and manicured parklands, this was a vintage year with Course Records exceeded a total of six times !
 The programme included Slalom, Tricks, Jump and Wakeboard. Competitors took part from Belarus, Canada, Chile, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Japan, Malaysia, Mexico, Republic of Korea, New Zealand, Peru, Russia and USA. Nautique provided all the competition boats and support staff and the City of Melbourne ensured that the facilities were just perfect !
Taking first place in Women’s Slalom, the defending Moomba Masters champion, Canadian Whitney McClintock, equalled the Course Record of 2 buoys on the 10.75m line in Round 1.
She also set a new Course Record in the Semi Finals of 5 buoys on this line. Taking second place, Manon Costard FRA was also superb. She equalled the old Course Record twice. Canada’s Breanne Dodd took third place with one buoy on the 11.25m line. In Women’s Tricks, the 9,470 points Course Record was exceeded no less than four times by the three youngest competitors. In Round 1, Erika Lang USA scored 9,570 points but 16 year-old World Champion Anna Gay USA pushed that further to 9,700 points. In the Semi-Finals, Gay did even better with 9,920 points and equalled that yet again in the Finals to take the title. Fourteen year-old Neilly Ross clocked up 9,290 points in Round 1 and took the bronze medal in the Finals behind Gay and Lang.
At 15.45hrs, Women’s Jump event began with the thousands of spectators waiting to see if their own World Champion, Jacinta Carroll, could take the Moomba title against very tough international competition. The Course Record was 53.8m.
It was exceed twice on the Nautique Jump Ramp this time around. Lauren Morgan USA was the first to break the 50m distance with a great 50.1m score - enough for a bronze medal. Alex Lauretano USA responded with 51.7m to take the silver medal. To the crowd’s delight, Jacinta Carroll was in a league of her own with a distance of 54.2m to take the title, having already set a new Course Record in Round 1 of 54.3m. |
