Young star: Fletcher Ball claimed the open men overall title at the Australian Barefoot Water Ski Championships in Western Australia last week. Photos: Alison Langevad
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ALISON LANGEVAD
Fletcher Ball has once again walked away from the Australian Barefoot Water Ski Championships a national champion, following a spectacular week in Western Australia.
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Having previously dominated at junior level, Ball earned his first national title among the senior ranks at Bonney’s Water Ski Park in Bladivis, Western Australia, racking up 2977.01 points to take out the overall accolade in the open men division.
“It feels really good,” Ball said following the win.
“I've always loved going down there (to nationals), seeing a few mates once again, and to be able to come from where I was last year and come and beat the world champion this year and put up those scores in the first round was just really good.”
Ball earned the maximum 1000 points in both the tricks and slalom disciplines, while recording the second-best result across both rounds of the jumps discipline for a haul of 977.01 points, with his total of 2977.01 a mammoth 232.52 ahead of second place.
With a jump of 25.5m, a tricks score of 8700 — which he bettered with a score of 9200 in the second round — and a slalom score of 19.60 in round one, Ball’s week was littered with personal bests, which surprised him despite the hard work he has put in.
“I’ve been working pretty hard with ‘Sandsy’ (Brett Sands) and Brad Shearer, but I certainly wasn’t going out there expecting to crack three new PBs, and by quite a lot as well in the first round,” he said.
“(To) then go and crack another PB in the second round, I didn’t expect it at all.”
The personal bests did not occur through luck, however, with Ball having to push himself to continue to hone his skills and put in a big shift at training after completing a full day at work.
“Training towards nationals, it sort of looked like me (being) tired after work and Sandsy pushing me to go out, both Sandsy and Brad, after work,” he said.
“(We’d go out) two or three times after work, or sometimes just once, and we’d usually try and get out there on the weekend once as well, so just continuously hitting the water, I suppose.”
Brilliant result: Ball earned four new personal bests across the week.
Photo by
ALISON LANGEVAD
The overall win will see the young gun return to the world championships once again as a member of the Australian team, and in with a real chance of earning the title.
“I’m looking forward to world’s. I’ve never looked forward to it so much. It will be a cracker of a week,” Ball said.
He will be heading to Florida in October alongside Sands, who will be competing at his 11th world championships after also qualifying for the elite open team following a third-place finish in the slalom at the national titles.
Skiing on the same team as his mentor is something Ball is excited about, while he is also keen to link up with some of the best barefoot talent from across the country once again.
“It will be so good (having Sands on the team), even with some of the other boys from around Australia that I’ve just skied against over the last week,” he said.
“I’m so keen to get over there with them as well. I’ve been speaking to them a bit.
“I’ve convinced one of the champions to come over to Florida with us. He was thinking about not going because of work and stuff, but I think I’ve got him on the books.”
Ball and Sands are set to compete at the world championships in Florida in the United States from October 5 to 12.
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