21st September 2003 SATURDAY REPORT Another hot day here in Clermont, although today had a slightly cooling breeze, varying from light to very strong throughout the day. The slalom event unfortunately had a strong cross/head wind on the first pass for most of the day and thunder and lightning at times later, during the mens event. Although, this did nothing to stop the amazing skiing that was to come. The ladies slalom started well Rhoni Barton scoring 3 @ 11.25m (38 off). Anais Amade followed skiing 5 @ 11.25m, however she missed her entry gates and so her score was only 6 at 12m (35 off). Sarah Gatty Saunt followed scoring 4.5 @ 11.25m, but was bettered by the next skier, Michel Simpson scoring 1.5 @ 10.75m (39 off). Only 3 skiers managed to break into the 10.75 line length, Geraldine Jamin scoring 2 and equaling her PB and Emma Sheers who ski'd last. Emma went out at 14.25m, then ran 13m, only to be interrupted by a technical problem with the cameras. It took a few minutes to sort the problem, meanwhile the wind got up, meaning she then had worse conditions than the rest of the ladies before her. Once the problems were fixed, Emma ran a 13m warm up pass, followed by 12m, a tail wind 11.25m (all other skiers had taken this pass into the wind), and then a very impressive 3.5 buoys @ 10.75m to become the world slalom champion. Geraldine Jamin took the silver and Michel Simpson the bronze. By the time the mens slalom started, the wind had again picked up. Doug Ross went out first and scored 2 @ 10.75m, by the time Joel Wing ski'd, there were big black clouds looming and the wind really got strong, he scored 2.25 @ 11.25m, although he had a really strong wind on his last pass. Fabio Ianni ran his opener at 14.25m, and the judges decided that the wind was too strong and that we should wait until the storm passed through. After the wind had died down a little, Fabio then ran a 14m warm up pass, and ended up with 4.5 @ 11.25m. For most of Fabio's passes there was something floating in the water being blown across, when he fell at buoy 5 on his last pass, he protested, but the judges must have decided that it wasn't in his way as he wasn't granted a re-ride. Because of the wind on his last pass, Joel Wing was then given a re-ride of his 11.25m pass, which improved his score to 4.5 @ 11.25m. Then the interesting stuff began! Glenn Campbell next out, cleared the 10.75m pass and proceeded to get 1.25 @ 10.25m, setting an excellent and hard to beat standard for the rest of the field. (Glenn was helped along the way with a cheering British group and chorus's of Rule Britannia!). Next out was Steve Cockeram, who also managed to clear the 10.75m pass, he also scored 1.25 on the 11.25m line, crashing around buoy 2. Next Andy Mapple went out at 14.25m, ran 13m, opted up and ran 11.25m, then ran a tail wind 10.75m. However, he didn't get a good start on the 10.25m line and managed to score only 1 buoy. Michael Kjellender only managed 2.5 @ 11.25m. Next out was Will Asher, he started at 14.25m and cheered on by the now very vocal British crowd, ski'd an excellent 1.5 buoys on the 10.25m line taking the lead. Jamie Beauchense followed, but although managed to clear the 10.75m pass, only scored 1 @ 10.25m. Chris Parish similarly only managed 1 @ 10.25m, leaving the final skier of the day Jeff Rogers. Jeff also started on the 14.25m pass and without opting up at any time, also cleared the 10.75m pass. He then ski'd round 1 and 2 at 10.25m, skiing back to the wake with a very slack line, letting the handle go to become World Champion with 2 @ 10.25m. Will Asher took the silver and Steve Cockeram the bronze as his prelim score was better then Glenn Campbells. A very exciting contest, with some excellent scores, especially considering the strong winds. The trick event was also great to watch, with a really high standard of tricking and Jimmy Siemers taking the mens title with 11,660 points and Mandy Nightingale taking the ladies title with 7,680 points. I am now looking forward to the jump finals tomorrow. It will be interesting to see what the weather and more importantly the wind will be like for that.