Roquebrune-sur-Argens, FRANCE - High winds continue to plague the 1995 World Water Ski Championships, but Canadian skiers held on and managed to place five skiers into six final events. Judy Messer (Streetsville, Ontario) qualified in both the slalom (2@12m) and trick (6080 points) events. These performances place Messer in one of the top positions in pursuit of the women's overall title. Susi Graham (Kitchner, Ontario), world record holder in the women's slalom event, qualified for the slalom final with a score of 1@12m.
The men's team managed to see brothers, Kreg and Jaret Llewellyn (Innisfail, Alberta) advance to the men's trick final with preliminary round scores of 7800 and 10130 points respectively. Jaret is seeded second going into the finals. Matt Rini (Sydenham, Ontario) had an unfortunate early fall, missing the cut for the trick final. Drew Ross (Belleville, Ontario), Team Canada's top men's slalom seed qualified for the slalom finals with a run of 3@11.15m.
Canadian team coaches Steve Bush and Mike Ferraro state: "Based on these difficult conditions due to unpredictable and gusty winds, we feel our team has performed considerably well." When approached regarding the exciting team race, Bush commented, "Right now the team title is real close between our Canadians, France, and the USA. Tomorrow the jump event starts and that can change the entire picture drastically."
Judy Messer is currently in a comfortable position to place strong in the overall event. The overall event is the total score of all three events: slalom, trick and jump. Messer will jump tomorrow in the preliminaries. Coach Bush claims, "again though with the jump event yet to happen, anything is possible." Canadian men jumpers, Jaret and Kreg Lleweylln, Matt RIni and Jim Clunie (Tisdale, Saskatchewan), sometimes referred to as the "Canadian Air FOrce", will hit the ramp tomorrow morning. Final events on Saturday will see Susi Graham and Judy Messer in the women's slalom event and Kreg and Jaret Llewellyn in men's tricks.
For further information please contact: Angela Gallant (613)-5683