Lake Karapiro, located in Cambridge New Zealand provided a stunning day with perfect conditions for riders on Saturday 4 February for the finals day of the Asian & Oceania Championships. 

The morning programme opened with LCQ for men’s open which saw New Zealand’s Regan Carlyon progress to the final along with Hong Kong’s Vincent Wai Sing Law. It was then the turn of the Juniors, first up 14 and under Girls final saw Australia’s Mackenzie McCarthy put on a fabulous display of inverts and spins to take a clean win from Malaysia’s Ariana Eimer and a very happy Brooke Wilson from New Zealand who progressed past fellow Kiwi rider Sophie Gallon. The Junior Boys Division opened with Anthony East of New Zealand putting up a good performance ahead of Korea’s Yun Seo Kim who had an even stronger performance, the final rider was Australia’s “wonder kid” Sam Brown who put on a display that would have seen him push the open Mens’ riders.   Sam Brown took the Junior Boys title with a stand up ride.  

As the water remained perfect the open Women took to the dock, Australia’s Zahra Kell still eligible for Juniors put down an extremely competitive pass to really up the stakes,  fellow country women Chloe Mills made a valiant effort to surpass her performance but came up short, first round leader Hee Hyun yun wasn’t to be out done and under pressure put up a spectacular ride, that saw her edge ahead of Zahra Kell and take out the win. With the sun lowering providing a fantastic back ground, the premier Men’s open event unfolded on the water. The three leading riders from Friday’s rounds really showed the crowd what these riders’ can do on a Wakeboard. Korea’s Sang Hyun Yan put up a score that was going to take some beating, so Australia’s Cory Teunissen set about doing just that, he wowed the crowd with the first ever double indy back roll, to edge ahead of the Korean rider Sang Hyun Yan.  Lying in third place after qualifying the Worlds no. 1 rider Toni Iacconi threw down what was to be the winning ride including toe and heel side 900 and technical inverts with handle passes, and super clean landings, all of which found favour with the Judges.  All and all a perfect day’s Wakeboarding at a great venue.  

A spectacular show skiing display from the Australian Show Skiing team finished as the sun was setting.  For full results head to the result section of the web page.  

Action continues Sunday with the Asian Wakeboard Champs taking place at the same venue.

Ed Donald :: IWWF VP