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Three U.S. Athletes Win Titles At 2007 U.S. Open Water Ski Championships
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - U.S. water ski athletes Marcus Brown (Chico, Calif.), Mandy Nightingale (Sapulpa, Okla.) and Karen Truelove (Winter Garden, Fla.) won respective titles Saturday as the 20th U.S. Open Water Ski Championships, presented by MasterCraft, concluded under the lights on Village Lake at Downtown Disney.
Brown won his first career U.S. Open men's slalom title, defeating Canada's Thomas Moore in a thrilling runoff for the championship. After both skiers tied with scores of 2 buoys at 39-1/2 feet off, Brown came off the dock and posted a score of 1 buoy at 41 feet off to Moore's 2 buoys at 39-1/2 feet off to take the title.
Nightingale won her fourth consecutive U.S. Open women's tricks title, tallying 7,580 points. Greece's Angeliki Andriopoulou finished second with 7,430 points.
Truelove won her third career U.S. Open women's slalom title, scoring 3 buoys at 38 feet off. U.S. athlete April Coble-Eller (Lillington, N.C.) and Australia's Emma Sheers tied for second in the finals with a score of 2 buoys at 38 feet off.
In other events, Andriopoulou won the women's jumping title, leaping 164 feet; Canada's Jaret Llewellyn won men's jumping with a leap of 210 feet; and Belarus' Aliaksei Zharnasek won men's tricks, scoring 10,390 points. Llewellyn and France's Clementine Lucine clinched respective overall titles on Friday based on scores from the preliminary rounds.
Llewellyn tallied 2,833.2 points to win the men's overall title over U.S. athlete Jimmy Siemers (Round Rock, Texas), who scored 2,774.1 points. Great Britain's Jason Seels rounded out the top-three placements with 2,682.5 points.
Lucine scored 2,985 points to win the women's overall title over U.S. athlete Alex Lauretano (Morris, Conn.), who tallied 2,739.9 points. Fellow U.S. athlete Danyelle Bennett (Zachary, La.) finished third with 2,656.6 points.
In its 20th year, the U.S. Open attracted more than 75 of the world’s top water ski athletes from more than a dozen countries. It has long been considered the most prestigious tournament in three-event water skiing. Male and female athletes competed for titles in slalom, tricks and jumping. Athletes competing in all three events were eligible for the coveted U.S. Open overall title.
MasterCraft was the presenting sponsor and exclusive towboat of the U.S. Open.
USA Water Ski was formed in 1939 as a non-profit organization promoting water skiing in the United States. USA Water Ski is affiliated with the International Water Ski Federation (world governing body) and is recognized by the United States Olympic Committee and Pan-American Sports Organization as the national governing body of organized water skiing in the United States. With more than 40,000 members, USA Water Ski is the largest water ski federation in the world.
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