VICTORIA have their hands back on the title for the first time in five years in their annual tournament ski challenge against South Australia.
Mildura Ski Club’s Cowra Station facility was home for some brilliant slalom skiing action the weekend, with almost 30 entrants from both states will be competing over the two days with divisions ranging from under-10 to over-65.
Despite South Australia coming into the annual contest with arguably the stronger team, scoring likely favoured the home state and it proved to be the case, the Vics taking back overall honours 200.5 points to SA’s 157 over two rounds.
The standout performance came from Geelong rising star Alexei Werner, who competed in the open division for last year’s national titles, with the 18-year-old running the 12m pass for the first time in a tournament.
“Alexei was already an open-rated skier but it was a great performance from him to reach the 12m pass,” Mildura Ski Club’s Nigel Sparrow said.
“Essentially after each pass a skier makes the rope gets shortened, and the distance between the back of the boat the buoy is 11.5m, so he only had an extra 50cm of rope to work with.
“Especially in the conditions where we had some gusty winds knock us around, it was a very impressive performance.
“For the scoring we look at the Australian records for each category and we base the performances on that, so South Australia had some of the more impressive performances, but weren’t able to score as high which probably gave Victoria a bit of a leg up.”
Craig Stephen, president of Tournament Water Ski Victoria, said the annual state challenge was event they looked forward to every year.
“It’s a rare thing in our calendar to have a state versus state event. Mostly each state does their own thing, to have an event where we can build a bit of rivalry is great,” he said.
“Having a novice division here as well has been nice, giving a chance for those new to the sport to compete in a much more relaxed manner before it gets tougher.
“It’s good for us to win it back after four of five years, it’s been a little while coming.
“As a team we had some impressive performers with Alexei certainly the standout, but we had many contributors across all categories.
“The conditions, the site, the weather, it all lends itself to a great event each year and we certainly thank Mildura Ski Club for having these facilities for us to use.”
While the tournament in recent years has been predominantly based around slalom skiing, jump skiing has also previously been an important aspect.
Stephen said the possibility had been discussed of the discipline making a return in 2026.
“Tournament Water Ski Victoria is committed to being up here and hopefully helping improve the event further,” he said.
