MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND KICKED OFF THE
21ST JUNIOR MASTERS TOURNAMENT AT CALLAWAY GARDENS
Pine Mountain, GA (May 24, 2013) – Sunny weather with breezy conditions kicked off the 21st Junior Masters Water Ski & Wakeboard Tournament® this Memorial Day Weekend at majestic Callaway Gardens in Pine Mountain, GA just southwest of Atlanta.
Anna Gay from the USA claimed the Junior Women’s Trick title with a score of 6,900 points followed by Canada’s Nielly Ross and Alice Bagnoli from Italy. In the Junior Men’s Trick final, Gianmarco Pajni finished with 8,760 points securing the Junior Men’s Trick title, followed by Tanguy Dailland from France and Dorien Llewellyn in second and third place.
Additionally, in the Junior Women’s Slalom final, Brie Carter defended her title rounding 2.5 buoys at 35-off edging out first time Junior Masters competitor Marta Simoes and Allie Nicholson, claiming the 2013 Junior Women’s Slalom title. The Junior Men’s Slalom final came down to newcomer Jonah Shaffer edging out Dorien Llewellyn with a score of 3@38-off claiming his first Junior Masters Slalom title followed by Yiannis Nathanail rounding out the podium.
Unfortunately the wind conditions created challenges throughout semifinals and finals. Stephanie Griffiths from Australia jumped 132 feet claiming her first Junior Masters title followed by Charlotte Wharton and Chiara Bonnemann. Additionally, the Junior Men’s Jump final, Austria’s Dorien Llewellyn jumped 173 feet claiming his first Junior Men’s Jump title followed by Taylor Garcia and Felix Blomqvist.
Competing in all three events and scoring consistently earned Charlotte Wharton the Junior Masters Women’s Overall title with a max score of 3,000 points and junior men skier, Dorien Llewellyn earned the Junior Masters Men’s Overall title with a score of 2,930 points.
During the Junior Men’s Wakeboarding semifinal, plenty of frontside 7’s and grabbed mobe’s were landed with ease, there were even a few mobe 5’s, 9’s and a couple backside 7’s behind the state-of-the-art Super Air Nautique G23. Making it through to the finals from heat one was Massi Piffaretti from Italy and Tony Iacconi from Australia competing against heat two top finalists Noah Flegel from USA and Cory Teunissen from Australia. In the finals, a few of the competitors had difficulty adapting to the gusty winds and had early falls. In the end it was Iacconi claiming his first Junior Masters Wakeboard title with hammers such as a front mobe 5, nose grab crow 5, heelside frontside 7, and massive tricks into the flats followed by Flegel, Piffaretti and Teunissen rounding out the podium.
For complete up-to-date scores of the 21st Junior Masters, please visit http://masterswaterski.com/standings/
An invitation to compete in the Masters is universally considered an acknowledgement of achievement for reaching the pinnacle in a given watersports discipline – only the world’s most elite athletes compete at the Masters. This tournament is IWWF/USA Water Ski and WWA sanctioned. Watch all of 54th Masters action live on Saturday May 25th starting at 8:00AM EST, visit http://www.masterswaterski.com.
