With daily temperatures reaching 38 degrees, water temperature of 28 degrees and not a cloud in the sky all week, Sesena proved to be a fantastic site for the +35 E&A tournament held on 4 to 8 August 2016.

First out in the Preliminary rounds on 4 August was Juliet Thompson who secured her place in the trick finals. During the day finals places and GB team points racked up, with some great scores in the trick and jump rounds. By the end of day 1 GB was a comfortable 800 points ahead of second placed France.

On Day 2 of the Prelims, France brought out their top slalom team skiers who skied brilliantly, with most achieving scores just 1 or 2 bouys short of their PBs. GB slalom skiers also put in some great performances but by the end of the day team GB’s lead had just shrunk to just 56 points, with only a few rounds of slalom prelims remaining on Day 3. Team Captain Mark Beard was seen hunched over his calculator for hours but whichever way he worked the numbers it all depended on Tim Hazelwood’s slalom score on Day 3 – no pressure there then!

Ever the professional Tim put in a fantastic performance and team GB ended up with a total team score of 7,987 against France’s score of 7,822 – enough for team GB to take gold, and with every member of the GB team contributing to the total.

GB skiers also skied well during the Finals rounds with a total tally of 14 individual medals in slalom, trick and jump, as well as team gold, and with Tim Hazelwood, Joanne Porter and Janina Maher also taking overall medals. A total of 9 gold, 7 silver and 2 bronze medals in all.

Overall a very well organised competition, at a beautiful site and with brilliant skiing by team GB.