It's major Championships season and GB athletes are competing at two European Waterski Championships and the Barefoot Euros over the next week with the Boat Wakeboard Euros following soon after.

SENIOR WATERSKI

A team of 10 skiers is currently competing at the IWWF Europe & Africa Over-35s Championships at Botaski near Madrid in Spain.  

The GB Squad is:

• Kelly Atkins (+35 overall)
• Chris Heron (+35 slalom)
• Oliver Jessop (+35 slalom)
• Kevin Lochhead (+55 slalom)
• Stuart Scott-Ely (+55 slalom)
• Hilary Winter (+55 slalom)
• Simon Wooldridge (+55 overall)
• Rodney Rowlands (+65 overall)
• Juliet Thompson (+75 slalom and trick)
• Jonathan Cohen (+75 slalom)

 

The competition got under way on Wednesday and GB already has athletes through to several finals at the weekend.  You can follow the results on the IWWF EA website.

Eleven youngsters, including three members of the same family, will represent GB at the 2024 IWWF European Youth Waterski Championships at Recetto near Milan in Italy next week.  The competition takes place from Wednesday 21 to Sunday 25 August.

It's the first time that all three Cosgrove siblings, James (15), Isabel (12) and Lara (10) have been selected to compete at an international Championships. 

James and Issy have already represented GB and Issy was in the GB team that won Under-14s bronze at the 2023 European Youth Championships. Both Issy and James recently competed at the 2024 World Under 17 Championships in Canada where Issy made the final in the tricks event and finished 12th Overall - a fantastic result for someone so young. This will be the first time Lara has represented GB.

The GB Squad is:

Under-17s

• Harrison Crossland, 17, (overall)
• Sebastian Turp, 16, (overall)
• Charlie Fearn, 14, (overall)
• Willow Skipsey, 15, (slalom and tricks)
• James Cosgrove, 15 (wildcard - slalom and tricks)
• Oscar Withers, 16, (wildcard - slalom)

Under-14s

• Harley Coster, 14, (overall)
• Jimmy Elliott, 14, (overall).
• Isabel Cosgrove, 12, (overall).
• Buddy Carrington, 11, (overall).
• Lara Cosgrove, 10, (wildcard - tricks)

BAREFOOT

A team of 11 barefoot waterskiers is heading to the Netherlands to represent GB at the IWWF Europe & Africa Championships, which take place at Maurik  from Wednesday 21 to Saturday 24 August.

The squad is made up of nine male and two female athletes aged between 15 and 61, among them medallists at previous European and World Championships. Several of them were in the GB teams that won silver at the 2023 European Championships and bronze in 2022.

Matilda Mulcahy. Photo: Mark Thomas

The GB barefooters will compete across a range of age categories - Junior, Open and Senior – at the Championships.

The GB Squad is:

Junior Boys

• Olly Moore (15)
• Jasper Poulton-Stowe (15)

Junior Girls

• Matilda Mulcahy (15)

Open Men

• Adam Chalk
• Rick Moyes
• Tom Heaps
• Ben Sullivan
• Hayden Knaggs
• Robbie Crewe (first reserve)

Open Women

• Arwen Entract
• Matilda Mulcahy (also competing in Junior Girls)

Senior Men

• Simon Raine

Tom Heaps. Photo: Mark Thomas