Jett Williams, son of caddie Steve Williams, came first in the pro men's Park event at the 2022 Freestyle Roller Sports NZ National Champs at Bay Skate in Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor
Jett Williams, son of caddie Steve Williams, came first in the pro men's Park event at the 2022 Freestyle Roller Sports NZ National Champs at Bay Skate in Napier. Photo / Paul Taylor
The caddie's son is a scooter gun.
One of the big winners in the national scooter championships in Napier over the weekend was none other than Jett Williams, the son of Tiger Woods' former long-serving caddie Steve Williams.
About 600 spectators descended on Bay Skate to see Williams use hisbig air at the Freestyle Roller Sports NZ National Champs to qualify to represent New Zealand in a world championship event in Argentina.
Two Napier riders are among those who will join him. Alexandra Madsen came second in the pro women's Park event, while Sean McFarland came third in the pro men's Park event.
Caleb Taylor, retail manager at Bay Skate and a judge of the two-day competition, said categories ranged from 13 and under to Pro Men and Women in the Park and Street events, with 81 riders competing overall.
He said the top three riders from the Park and Street competitions in 17 and under Men's, Pro Men's, and Pro Women's categories would now travel to the World Skate Games in Argentina.
The inaugural event featured some massive air from Williams, who took out the pro men's Park event and 13-year-old Niko Campbell from Tauranga who punched above his weight with a first-place finish in the 17 and under men's Park event.
Taylor said the Park and Street focussed on two different aspects of scooter riding at a high level.
Bradley Goudie in the 2022 Freestyle Roller Sports NZ National Champs. The top three riders in each event qualified to represent New Zealand at the World Skate Games. Photo / Paul Taylor
"Park is more doing tricks over box jumps and riding quarter pipes and everything like that," Taylor said.
"Street is more riding on rails and ledges, doing the more technical stuff."
He said Freestyle Roller Sports NZ (FRS) is the newly created governing body for competition scooter riding in New Zealand and they aim to hold more national events that led to New Zealand riders competing in multiple international events.
"This is our first event and we have got a lot more upcoming and planned out," Taylor said.
Thomas Fitzgerald-Grout in the 2022 Freestyle Roller Sports NZ National Champs. This is the first of a number of events planned by the newly created Freestyle Roller Sports NZ. Photo / Paul Taylor
"Our main focus is to try and get our riders overseas to compete."
He said future events will move around, but mainly be held at Bay Skate in Napier.
