Ruamahanga trio named

Ruamahanga Barefoot Waterski Club members had plenty to celebrate after the national championships at Lake Inspiration, Otaki, last week ... a host of medals and the selection of three of their own in New Zealand teams selected to attend the world barefoot skiing championships in Germany in August.
Matthew Forsyth, Sarah Linton and Bevan Kelly are the trio headed for the worlds and a fourth club member, Ross Linton, will accompany them in the official position of assistant manager.
Forsyth took first place overall in the hugely-competitive junior boys division at Otaki despite being disappointed with a couple of his runs. He won two gold and two bronze medals plus the title of overall champion and sealed selection in the national junior men's team for the worlds, an exceptional result for a talented youngster.
Sarah Linton secured her place in the New Zealand open team for Germany with a series of very solid performances.
In the jump, she returned a distance a half-metre more than that which had got her into the finals of last year's worlds but it was not good enough to make the last two at Otaki and she had to be content with the bronze medal.
At the conclusion of the slalom final, Linton and Georgia Groen had the exact same scores so a ski-off had to be run to decide the winner. Unfortunately, Linton fell on her backwards pass and had to settle for the silver medal there. She also picked up a bronze medal for third overall, an outstanding achievement considering this is her first year in the open division.
Kelly tore three holes in his stomach in training for the nationals but still attempted to compete. After two falls, he had to pull out but that disappointment was countered by him being selected in the New Zealand senior team for Germany. Hopes are he will be back to peak fitness by then.
Two Ruamahanga members, Greg Barber and Greg Mouldy, skied in the men's two division at the nationals with Barber taking gold in the slalom, bronze in tricks and second overall. Mouldy was third in slalom, fourth in tricks and fourth overall.
A couple of rookies in Kelly Linton and Mark Forsyth also flew the Ruamahanga flag with Linton placing third and Forsyth fourth. Nick Hamblyn contested the jump in the open men's division. He reached over 23m in the preliminaries but was unable to repeat that in the finals where a jump of 20.1m won bronze. In the team's competition, Ruamahanga Barefoot Water Ski Club was placed fifth.