Ukkohalla final day of the Europeans… Saturday 1 August

With the TV cameras on and the live stream, well, live! the day was all about the big guns in European Wakeboarding; the upset, the controversy, the injuries, the victories. The day was destined to be a soap opera of sorts!

With the Team GB girls focused and ready to hit the water, Tor Young was first up to lay down the gauntlet. She and Sophie Cordery had a very tough group in Junior Ladies Final with strong opposition from German Sophia Marie Reimers, current European Champion, and Dutch riders Joelle Feenstra and Mayanka Jansen.

It was clear from Tor’s first run how the GB riders excelled in their obstacle skills, smoothly back lipping the Dragon Rail then setting her self up for three water based inverts. The standard of the Junior Ladies has seen a noticeable rise in the last few years, with most riders only having 2 inverts in their run last year to this, where 3 was a regular feature. So with a cool sequence of Raley, Back Roll then Blind Judge, Tor sealed her first run with a well executed ollie 360 and then hit the wall ride.

Sophie Cordery showed off her rail skills with a back lip to 270 off on the dragon, a solid 360 off the teeny tiny wedge excuse for a kicker and got a Krypt and Raley in before loosing the handle on an ollie 360! It’s typical of this level of riding that a trick done a million times over in practice can suddenly desert you in competition!

Mayanka Jansen stuck a solid run with a good range of inverts, Back Roll, Raley and Roll to Revert before gapping the A frame. This was a strong enough run to jump ahead of Tor after the first run.
Joelle Feenstra put together a good run, but added an S-bend to really up the anti! But the current title holder Sophia came out with all guns blazing to lay down a Front, Roll to Revert, Blind Judge and back lipping the A frame! This run put her ahead in first place ready for the second run.

Despite Sophie’s steezie back lip of the A frame, the most style of ANY rider on that obstacle in the entire competition, in my opinion, and Joelle getting her S-Bend again, the contest was between Tor, Mayanka and Sophia. Tor pulled out all the stops and added a clean Roll to Blind and a Blind Judge, not to mention a 360 on the wall ride! The judges decreed that she only increased her score by 4 points, so when Mayanka fell in her second pass, Tor was only placed third. Sophia out on top before her final run, still managed to include a Front to Blind and Blind Judge just to confirm her standing as European Champion.

In the Open Ladies Final, current European Champion Maxine Sapulette had arrived to the competition late and so hadn’t seen the girls in the final ride before. She was in for quite a treat! Swedish rider Lina Lundgren, kicked off with a Raley, then an incredible S-bend where she landed on her back, but somehow bounced back onto her board to ride away for a switch Krypt! Her sheer determination to hang on no matter what was quite incredible!! It was also good to see the girls having both regular and switch inverts, something not seen too often.

It was all eyes to the water as Maxine started her run and in a cool fashion, put together a fairly conservative run, but solidly executed with a Raley, Switch Roll to Revert, effortless S-Bend and huge floaty Tantrum off the kicker. Steph Caller showed off her world class rail skills in her final back lipping the Dragon rail with 270 off, a smooth back side 180 off the small kicker and ollie back side 180 before a Raley, Back Roll and Krypt, followed by a 360 off the kicker, switch back side ollie 180 and slick 360 on the wall ride! The girl has rail skills like few others, and this run was good enough to place her second behind Maxine.

But the upset was soon to come. Newcomer to the International Scene Kirsteen Mitchell, with less than 2 full season’s riding, took to the water with a back lip 270 off the flat bar, Heel side 360 off the wedge, Krypt, then Roll to Blind (!) Front to Fakie (!!) a massive tantrum and press on the A frame!! The girl literally came out of nowhere to knock Maxine off top spot and get the crowd geed up for a battle in the next round!

The other girls didn’t manage to move Steph from her third position despite falling on her Roll to Blind attempt, so the battle was on for top spot. Maxine began her second run with shaky rail riding, but added more tricks, and elevated her Raley to a Blind Judge, kept her signature S-Bend and switch Roll to Revert, but swapped her ollie 360 for a switch Krypt. She’d improved her score by 6 whole points but was still only 4 points ahead of Kirsteen’s first run!!

So in her very first International competition, Kirsteen was on the brink of causing major upset to the female order in Cable Wakeboarding! She began her run with the same cool and solid execution, swapped her Krypt for a Front, pushing Max’s run, then got her Roll to Blind in, but tragically fell on the Blind Judge to follow. This was the first year that Maxine Sapulette had any real competition. It will be great to see these two battle it out for years to come!! Well done Kirsteen.

Ukohalla, Finland, was a great competition for Team GB especially for the girls. With 6 individual medals for the ladies across 4 different categories, ‘the girls did good’ and helped contribute to overall Silver for Team GB. The standard across Europe is rising at a phenomenal rate in the female competition, and it’s great to see that the GB girls are staying up there with the rest of them and rattling a few cages too! A huge ‘WELL DONE’ to all the girls who represented in Finland this year. You should be proud of yourselves.

A big thank you to the Team GB committee for their organisation and support.

Monday 03 August 2009 | Permalink