The World Junior Water Ski Championships were held in San Bernardo, Santiago, Chile from 5th to 8th January 2017 and what an amazing performance by our skiers. . .

The team of Katie Nutt, Amber Butterfield, Joel Poland, Robert Hazelwood, Arron Davies and Benjamin Turp with their team Captain and Manager George and Flo Hazelwood arrived in Florida during December for some much needed pre-event training considering the out of season dates for us in the UK.

After some hard training and spending Christmas and the New Year in Florida the team flew to Chile on 1st January, with our official onsite training and familiarisation to be on the 4th. The site was absolutely beautiful and after the team worked hard together to ensure they were prepped for the competition ahead, all that was left was to do was rest before the Championships kicked off. With 22 Countries arriving - the competition was high, however, what was to follow was one of the best performances for a British Tournament Team in many years.

The competition started with Amber Butterfield competing in Slalom at her first ever Worlds. A great performance achieving 1.5@13m meaning a new PB and we were off to a great start. Amber was also our next skier entering Tricks gaining another PB of 3430. Katie Nutt followed in the Trick category with a decent score of 3630 but sadly missed out on the finals. Ben Turp was also to miss out on a finals spot in the Trick category however, his new PB 4000 point score was ultimately to be a great placing to the team's final scoring. Arron Davies was last to head out at the end of the day but despite some great Tricks he fell and finished with a score of 2220 points.

The following day Amber kicked off with a new PB in the Jump category of 26.9m, Katie Nutt followed with 28.9m and Ben Turp with 39.2m. Katie was next up to Slalom achieving 2.5 @ 12m. This looked like a score that may make the finals but it meant that Katie was to go head to head with French skier Laura Martain-Champetier. However, despite the support of her team mates, family members and supporters Katie just missed out on the final. Very exciting and Katie proved she had what it takes for the pressures of World Championships. Ben Turp also had a good run but sadly missed out on a finals spot. Next out for us was Robert Hazelwood who cruised down the line and shortened to 11m which we knew was the key pass. He then took a shot on 10.75m and got 2 buoys meaning the challenge was on for the rest of the boys as this is close to the Tournament record. Arron Davies was in a 4 way tie for the last three places in the Slalom final. Arron went on to secure one of those places in the final with a tie breaking score of 4 at 11.25. The last of the boys Slalom was Joel Poland. Joel Poland was in a 3 way tie for second spot on 4 at 11.25. This meant three Brits in the World Junior Slalom final, what an exciting proposition.

Last out on the Friday was series 1 Tricks meaning Robert Hazelwood and Joel Poland were skiing. Robert went out and smashed his runs entering the finals with a score of 7880 – topping up the final team score nicely. Joel followed achieving an impressive 8030 score – another finals spot for our boys.
The next day saw Arron Davies in the Jump category. Things didn’t go to plan for Arron but he did end up getting a good score of 41.8m. Robert Hazelwood had three good jumps with a top score of 52.3m. Joel Poland went out last for us and by now the crowd knew things were tight overall and Joel showed his cool putting out a good team score of 53m first then adding with each jump until he came in with a 56.1m.

In the Afternoon it was finals time with both Robert and Joel in the Tricks final. Robert went out first and despite a wobble came in with a respectable 7630 points. Joel was out pretty soon after and after a nervous wait for his score heard he had got 9150 points which meant 3rd Place Bronze medal!

Sunday saw Robert, Joel and Arron Slaloming in the Final and Robert and Joel Jumping. In the Boys Slalom final Arron was one of the early skiers off the dock following his tie break run off in the preliminaries, and set what was to be a massive task for all the skiers to follow with 2 buoys at 10.75 an equal PB and what a time to pull that out. A fantastic score for all to try to follow. Joel skied very well with 5 at 11.25 just quite not managing to get into that crucial 10.75 line. So last off the dock was to be Rob after his lead in the preliminary round. So far Arron was in the lead and the only skier to score any buoys on the 10.75 metre line. Rob skied superbly under what must have been great pressure and equalled Arron’s 2 buoys at 10.75. So there was to be a run off between Arron and Rob, 2 of our skiers battling for the Gold and Silver medals, what a great position for the skiers and any Team Captain to be in, and it was GB. First off the dock and out cold in this run off on the 11.25m line was Arron who managed 3.5 buoys, then it was Rob’s turn who took the win with half a buoy more with 4 at 11.25. Altogether a great final for GB, with Joel just finishing outside the medals in 4th place.

The Boys Jump was to be the decider not only for that medal but for the Individual Overall and Team Overall medals as well. Rob could not quite match his first round score with his final jump of 48.3. Joel 2nd to last off the dock took the lead with a jump of 55.1 and only to be beaten to the Gold by Pinette of Canada on his 3rd jump and the last of the tournament. What a final day! After a nail biting calculation Joel won the Gold in the Overall with Duplan of France the Silver and the Bronze went to Rob, a great performance from our boys.

In the Team Overall GB beat the USA into the Bronze medal position by the slenderest of margins an altogether amazing performance and great team effort by the skiers and the support from our Team Captain and Manager George and Flo Hazelwood. Also it was great to have the parents and relatives of the skiers there for their much valued and needed support both at and away from these Championships.

Thank you to those who supported and sponsored the skiers and helped us achieve such an exciting result. If you would like to support the Team GB Tournament Skiers contact British Water Ski HQ and join the 200 Club which we hope can help keep the medals rolling.

 Full results can be found on the IWWF website