Hot stuff at ski slalom

It looked a bit hit and miss there at the start of the week but it's turned out perfect.Des Papprill, Wanganui Water Ski Club member

With temperatures reaching 26C at the weekend, some at Lake Wiritoa felt jealous when a waterskier fell in.

Such spills spelled the end of the line for several top competitors in the Masters Games head-to-head slalom event yesterday, including 2011 silver medallist Ron Bakker.

"I was looking pretty good there because I had a bloody good score, but I crashed out.

"Once you're out of the competition you have nothing to do so you end up sitting and cheering on the other guys, it makes all of us in the ski fraternity pretty close."

Bakker said national competitions would normally include three disciplines.

"There aren't enough masters to do the jumps unfortunately, and there's only a couple of us who do the tricks, so here it's just restricted to the slalom."

A field of 25, including five women, took part in three days of competition. Wanganui Water Ski Club member Des Papprill said the event was relaxed, and blessed with ideal weather.

"It looked a bit hit and miss there at the start of the week but it's turned out perfect. We've been really lucky."

Papprill said a number of prospective entrants had to skip the event because of scheduling conflicts.

"We have a few mums and dads who have kids in the junior competition over in Australia and they would've loved to be here but it just didn't work out, it's the nature of the season unfortunately.

"However, we have had a few extra people turn up from around the place so we've ended up with about the same number of entries as last time.

"We've hosted the event in the Masters since the first one in 1989 and we've only had to miss one event because of a lack of numbers, but since then the numbers have been steadily increasing."

RESULTS:

Gold: Craig Calder (Tauranga)

Silver: Ian Barker (Rotorua)

Bronze: Simon Meade (Wanganui)