After the first day's competition at the World Disabled Water Ski Championships in Melbourne, Australia the British Teams took an early lead over the American team in the first round of slalom. The British Team has been hit hard by injuries and, with only six skiers on the water today against fourteen Americans, with the five best scores from either team to count, Britain's disabled water skiers had only the slightest margin for error. All the team qualified for the finals comfortably with the most notable performances from Poole based Debbie Cummings who broke the world record in the arm category, and team captain Chris Mairs who equalled the world record in the V2, visually handicapped category. "The pressure was really on us today", said Mairs "but the whole team pulled together and it was an outstanding effort to even get near the American team never mind hold the narrowest of margins." Team Results after Slalom Round 1 1st Great Britain 4425.7 points 2nd USA 4359.9 points 3rd Australia 3081.1 points ©1999-2004 Design Suite