European Disabled Water ski Championships, Recetto, Italy

The European Disabled Championships were held in Recetto, Italy from 19^th to 23^rd August 2008.  Waterski Recetto is the beautiful Italian National Training site; purpose built for tournaments with three lakes about an hour from Milan. The facilities were excellent as were the water conditions. Great Britain are the reigning European Champions and took a team of six skiers to defend the title.

This tournament was a combined category event, with all female skiers skiing against each other and all male skiers skiing against each other regardless of disability. This is done by calculating a percentage that the skier scores against his or her World Record in their disability category. This new format made for an interesting event.

The women’s slalom event had to have been one of the most closely contested battles in a European disabled championship. Four British girls made it through to the final and they took the top four spots. Viv Orchard Bloor (L) took Gold  2,00/52 kph 18.25m, Claire Ellis (A/L 2) Silver  4,00/37 kph  18.25m and Jacky Stimpson (MP2) Bronze  2.00/55/8.75m. All three medalists set new World records in their disability categories.

Meanwhile, in the men’s category, despite a valiant attempt, Steve Armstrong unfortunately failed to make the final in any event. The girls rallied around the helped to boost the team’s score further; in women’s tricks, Jacky Stimpson (MP2) won Gold with a pending World record, which unfortunately was later reduced during review, whilst Adaline Fahey (MP3) Silver and Claire Ellis (A/L2) Bronze.

In women’s jump, Jacky Stimpson (MP2) took the Gold, Adaline Fahey (MP3) the Silver and Janet Gray (V1) the Bronze.

After such good results from the British girls in all events the Individual Overall was a close run in, Jacky Stimpson (MP2) took Gold 3039.87 pts, narrowly beating Adaline Fahey (MP3) into the Silver spot 2919.41 pts , with Delphine Le Sausse from France getting the Bronze with 2446.19 pts.

With such great results Team Great Britain successfully defended their title winning Gold with 10876.99 pts, whilst Italy scored 9071.72 pts to take Team Silver and France took Team Bronze with 7254.87 pts.