New Zealand's Courtney Williams at the top of her jump at the Oz Kiwi Water Ski Challenge in Lake Wiritoa yesterday.
New Zealand's Courtney Williams at the top of her jump at the Oz Kiwi Water Ski Challenge in Lake Wiritoa yesterday.
Records continue to fall at the ongoing Oz Kiwi Water Ski Challenge at Lake Wiritoa, with one Timaru teenager literally taking off.
In cool and flat conditions yesterday morning, Alex Brown, 13, set a new national junior girls record for the jump with 28.8m, comfortably above the previous mark of27.3m.
For the jumps division, skiers have three attempts going up the ramp, with three cameras recording their jump from the shoreline.
The moment of landing is then cross-referenced with a computer grid of the course to give an accurate distance reading.
This is then displayed on the lightboard at the clubrooms on the hill above the lake, so the skiers know how far they got before their next attempt.
"I was like, pretty nervous, but went out on my first jump and it said 21.1m, so I was disappointed with that," said Brown.
"So I told myself, 'I just have to go harder'."
Deciding she had "pulled out" - aka when you let go of the toe rope – a little too early, Brown trusted herself to hang on a little longer and still control herself as she headed up the ramp with the added speed.
