content/uploads/2013/09/img_4092_1-mark-leong.thumbnail.jpg” />The Asian Waterski & Wakeboard Championships have again returned to Lake Sunter, Jakarta, where the Indonesia Waterski & Wakeboard Association (IWWA) last hosted the event in 2010 when it was combined with the Asian & Australasian championships.
Originally scheduled for Palembang the event was switched at the last minute to Jakarta where the IWWA are playing the perfect hosts.
The future looks particularly bright for the U17 boys with Indra Hardinate of Indonesia putting in a fine slalom performance in his first round of 1.25 buoys at 58 kph on a 12-metre line to match the front runners in the Open.
In the Open Ladies Slalom on Thursday Saaya Hirosawa topped the leader board with 3.5 buoys at 55kph on a shortened 13-metre line (3.5/55/13) amongst the ten skiers.
Out of the 20 men slalom skiers representing nine Asian countries three ran their 13-m pass with Salavador Chiha (Lebanon) scoring a ½ buoy on the 12-metre line, Kim Dongeon (Korea) scoring one buoy and Cho Bumgeon (Korea) topping the tables with two buoys.
Saayah Hirosawa (40.9m) again out jumped her colleague Kamiya Harue (37.5m) to find herself leading the jump field whilst ‘Jumping Jimmy’ Jeong Jimin scored a 57.1m jump to take the lead while Hagama Shunjiro (Japan) leads the men’s trick prelims with a score of 5390 points.
The Women’s wakeboard semi-finals got underway today, Saturday 28th with Han Qiu (China), Yun Hee-hyun (Korea ), Sasha Christian (Singapore) and Nadya Atlalia Sinaga (Indonesia) qualifying directly for the finals whilst Galuh Mutiara Maulidina (INA) and Lee Sun-joo (Korea) qualified by way of the last chance qualifier (LCQ).
Padiwat Jaemjan (THA), Guy Tanaka (JAP). Tatsanai Kuakoonrat (THA)and Jung Sang-hyu (KOR) will lead the challenge against the remaining Korean open men riders Yung Sang-hyu and Ji Hyun, with Bader Alyihager of Kuwait also scraping into the finals.
In the Men’s Wakeboard quarter-finals Hong Kong’s Ronnie Cheung Ho Leung put in a fine performance to qualify directly for the semi-finals but failed to progress into the finals.
With almost perfect conditions the situation is set for fierce competition in the finals tomorrow.
