Personal bests and medals for locals at world champs

The three Ruamahanga Barefoot Waterski Club members who competed for New Zealand at the recent world championships in Brandenburg, Germany, did themselves proud.
Top of the pops was undoubtedly Bevan Kelly, who was a dominant figure in the senior men's division. He finished with two gold medals and one bronze, the golds for placing first overall and first in jump and the bronze for placing third in tricks.
It was his victory in the jump which was the individual highlight for Whitby's Kelly with his distance of 24.1m being a national record. That effort earned him 996 points which added to his 813 points for slalom and 999 points for tricks gave him an a winning overall points of 2807.48 points.
Making Kelly's form look even more impressive was the fact that his preparation for the worlds was hampered by his breaking of two ribs during a practice session in May.
Youngsters Sarah Linton and Matt Forsyth both scored personal best scores in tricks and equalled their PBs in slalom but neither was able to make it into the top eight for the semifinals.
Linton was contesting the hugely competitive open women's section and she placed a very creditable 11th in a field of 26. Her overall total was 1528 points after she scored 705 points in slalom, 466 points in tricks and 357 points in jump. She was the second highest-placed Kiwi, behind Georgia Groen (1904 points) and ahead of Kelly O'Donnell (1422 points).
Forsyth competed in the junior boy's division and finished 19th overall with a score of 891 points. He picked up 308 points in slalom, 222 points in tricks and 361 points in jump. Of the other New Zealanders in this grade Tyler Groen placed sixth (1763 points) and Connor Findlay 22nd (653 points).