2007 World Disabled Water Ski Championships

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“BRILLIANT” is how IWWF Disabled Council described the World Championships in Townsville.

Most competitors said that it was at the most beautiful site and it was the most organised event they have ever attended. Fourteen countries and fifty-two competitors attended the event.

Australia placed second on the podium in the teams point score. This was a huge achievement to finally get ahead of the United States who have long been the leaders in the sport. The Australian team was strong and made up by almost 50% Queenslander’s who attributed greatly to the team scores.

They were:

Two gold medals were won in the jump event by Ian Denman (MP1) and Darryl Hoyle (MP3). 

Darryl also broke the world jump record.

Scott Wintle won a gold medal in the Trick event (MP2).

Queensland Water Ski and Wakeboard Federation ‘congratulate’ all of these skiers!

An interesting point on how competitive these worlds were is that of the 14 countries present, 13 of them gained medals.

The Australian team was well managed by Noel Dix who we all know as the CEO of AWWF and coached very professionally by Drew Miller.

The event would have been one of the largest in Australia for the 2006 - 20007 season with the total budget being over $300,000.

The opening ceremony was sponsored by QWWF and went off brilliantly! The ceremony comprised of the presentation of the teams and officials, a reading by an Australian poet, a native traditional welcome and a dance, a bush band and exhibitions of native wildlife by the Billabong Sanctuary, all in the auditorium and beside the fantastic pool at the Riverside.

A huge thank you was given to QWWF for its contribution.

A video of the event was compiled by WIN TV in Townsville and can be seen above.

The Townsville Water Ski Club are to be commended and certainly recommended for future events.

Bushy Brown - Disabled Division