Euro riders prime up for W’board Worlds final

MANILA, Philippines - European riders continued to sizzle in the 2012 World Cable Wakeboard Championships, flaunting their top forms heading to this weekend’s slambang battle in the centerpiece Open men and ladies events in 2012 World Cable Wakeboard Championships at the Deca Wake Board Park in Clark, Angeles City.

After three days of action, a group of bemedalled riders from the Europe and Africa Championships basked in glory and split honors in the six-day event backed by Rixen Cableways, IWWF Wakeboard 2020 Vision, Smart, Gatorade, Deca Homes, Stoked Inc, RipCurl, Monster Energy Drink, Devant LED TV, Bacardi, Department of Tourism Region 3, Aktion Parks, Plus Event Marketing and organized by Eventking Corp.

Sanne Meijet of the Netherlands, the reigning E&A titlist, extended her reign to a global scale by topping the girls’ event. Germany’s Vanessa Weinhauer, the runner-up in the E&A, repeated her silver performance in the Clark competitions while Lottie Harbottle, the No. 2 in the British Nationals, took the bronze.

Like Meijet, Europe-Africa prince Hegadus Akos added the prestigious title of boys’ world champion to his resume. Akos bested Britain’s top two riders, Harry Eames and reigning British champ Ryan Peacock, for the plum.

Frenchman Raphael Menconi duplicated his fellow E&A champions’ feat by ruling the masters division at the worlds, dislodging 2010 champ Wolfram Wagner of Germany for the title. Great Britain’s Lee Mart took third place.

In wakeskate, Israel’s Ori Boujo (junior ladies) and France’s Clément De Prémonville (junior men’s) reigned supreme.

Boujo defeated Jaimi Oxlade of Australia and Sophie Cordery of Great Britain for the tiara while De Prémonville stamped his class on two German rivals, Moritz Thiele and Marcel Tilwitz.

Action hits boiling point with today’s wakeboard Open men’s semifinals and the finals of the junior ladies and junior men’s divisions.

The premiere male wakeboard riders will dispute honors in tomorrow’s finals, the same day as the open ladies bets.

Featured in Open men Semis 1 are James Young of Britain, Benedek Kis of Hungary, Tatsanai Aye of Thailand, idan Mizrahi of Israel, Laszlo Papp of Hungary, Matty Hasler of Australia, Declan Clifford of Britain, and Lior Sofer of Israel.

The Open men semis 2 will have Im San of Korea, Daniel Fetz of Austria, Mattias Hoppe of Sweden, Vincent Sudrat of France, reigning world champ Nick Davies of Britain, Efi Levi of Israel and Frédéric von Osten and Dominik Gührs of Germany.

The top four riders in each semis bracket will advance to the finals.

Sunday’s Open ladies finals will be a dispute among defending champion Kirsteen Mitchell, Tor Young and Steph Caller of Britain, Sophia Marie Reimers and Cosima Giemza of Germany, Astrid Schabransky of Austria, Denise de Haan of The Netherlands, and Angelika Schriber of Australia.