It’s first time winners to the fore as France’s Manon Costard and Mexico’s Patricio Font, both stunned the more favoured picks to win the women’s slalom and men’s tricks titles respectively at the IWWF Waterski World Championships.
For Costard, it is a first ever medal at the world meet after finishing empty handed in five previous meetings.
And she certainly savoured her maiden world title after a stunning display in the women’s slalom event at the Water Sport Complex, Putrajaya on Saturday.
With defending champion Regina Jaquess having set a really high bar after putting up a run of 3/55/10.75, the pressure was certainly on preliminary leader Costard to step it up.
The 28-year-old, who was last out of the docks, was certainly equalled to the task, tying Jaquess’ score to set up a deciding run-off – reminiscent of the 2017 final in which the American had won after beating out Canada’s Whitney McClintock-Rini.
But this time, it was the Marseille native who came up tops, putting up a 2/55/10.75 score to better Jaquess’ run of 1/55/10.75 to take the gold while New Zealand’s Jaime Metcalfe took the bronze.
It is Frane’s first individual gold medal since the 2007 world meet and the European nation’s first slalom gold since Sylvie Maurial in 1973.
“I’m just so excited right now and it’s going to be hard to calm down and realise what happened. I’ve been working towards this for years and I worked as hard as I could for this worlds,” said Costard.
“I came into the competition with a lot of confidence but with a lot of stress too and the pressure of going out last from the docks was really intense. Especially since Regina had set such a high bar.
“But I just focused on myself to ski at my level and I’m really proud of myself for achieving this.
“In fact this is my first medal at the worlds. I’ve always done well in pro tournaments but never in world championships.
“I would love to dedicate this win to my dad too. He’s the one who got me into skiing when I was three but he passed away when I was 11. He’s the special one and I know he’ll be proud as well,” added Costard.
Meanwhile, Jaquess’ failure to defend her slalom gold for a fourth straight world meet is a huge blow to the US’ hopes of retaining their team title.
The 35-year-old who also missed out on the tricks final, also dealt a severe blow in her bid for a fourth straight overall title.
There was however ecstasy in the Mexican camp as 17-year-old Font dished out a dazzling display of tricks to take home Mexico’s first waterski world title since Alfredo Mendoza in 1955.
With two-time defending champion Adam Pickos of the US dropping out of contention early with a score of 9,260, the world title was up for grabs with Belarus’ Aliaksei Zharnasek, Czech Republic’s Martin Kolman and France’s Pierre Ballon all taking the lead at one point.
And Font was simply ice cool and sensational as he went out there and produced a superb score of 11,740 – a new personal best and a new world junior record – to grab the lead.
It was all over minutes later as top seed Danylo Fil’chenko succumbed to pressure, falling off on both his passes to hand the victory to Font.
“I’ve been here training here for a week prior to this world championship and I’m glad that everything in practice worked out,” said Font.
“I’m just super happy right now because I’ve spent years dreaming about this moment and I still can’t believe it’s true.
“I’m just really pleased that I managed to put this round together with a new personal best and to stand up on both my passes as the final was really insane.”
The last day of the competition on Sunday will see the finals for the men’s slalom and jump and the women’s tricks and jump.
