The past EAME Cableski Championships was a showpiece for a fantastic competition and full of excitement and suspense.
The Friday started with the preliminary round of the Men’s Tricks and the Ladies’ Slalom. While the Men’s Tricks was dominated by Belarusian’s Siarhei Bushyn, the outstanding Robin Senge from Germany and last years World Champion Miroslav Hribik (Slovakia), Moshe Tzdaka from Israel surprised with not less then 8 flips, one of them a Full Twist Back Flip. Jana Wittenbrock (GER) won the Preliminary Slalom Round with 5,5 buoys at the 13 m rope, just 1 buoy more then the second, Iryna Turets from Belarusia.
After this two events all the skiers, officials and friends went to the Castle of Bad Arolsen (in the words of the host, the Prince of Waldeck-Pyrmont, the “biggest bungalow in town”), for the official opening ceremony. Dr. Götz Schweighöfer, the Chairman of the Waterski Club Twistesee, was the first to welcome the participants, followed by the Mayor of Bad Arolsen, Gerhard Schaller, the President of the IWSF Region EAME, Alain Amade, and the Prince himself.
Olga Pavlova (10330 points), Iryna Turets (9260 points) and Julia Meier-Gromyko (9880 points), all from Belarusia, all did beat already in the Preliminary Trick Round on the Saturday morning the actual record of 9180 points. But after the review through the Event Judges only the result of Julia Meier-Gromyko was still standing, the other two had been reduced below the old record.
The Men’s Slalom Preliminary Round was characterized by the early drop out of two of this event’s favourites, Alexander Graw and Simon Herrmann from Germany. Therefore their team member Andreas Pape took the lead with 3 at 10,25, 6 buoys more then the second, Moshe Tzdaka from Israel.
Iryna Turets, Julia Meier-Gromyko and Olga Pavlova, where also the leaders after the Preliminary Jump Round, followed on fourth place by Vicky Campell from Great Britain, who participated in her first international Cableski Competition at all. Excitement grew when the ramp height for the men went up to 1,80 m. All skiers in this series went over the 50 m barrier - but also Miroslav Hribik - with a ramp height of 1,65 m! The result of this round was a tie between Manfred Hintringer (Austria) and Andreas Pape with a distance of 58,9m.
With the end of the Preliminary Round in Jump, the Team Overall was decided: the as usual strong Belarusian team was the clear winner, followed by Germany and Israel.
The Sunday started with the Final Round of the Ladies’ Tricks: Again Julia Meier-Gromyko went over the World Record and for the title, but the real surprise was Iryna Dymant (BLR), who strongly improved her Preliminary Round result and ended with just 20 points more then third-placed Iryna Turets.
Or Shinuk from Israel, Moshe Tzdaka and Andreas Pape were the only ones to go into the 10,25 m in the Men’s Slalom Final. Or Shinuk, the brother of former Slalom Worldchampion Nir Shinuk, had to go first and just didn’t make it, falling between the 6th buoy and the exit gate. Next was Moshe, but he could not improve his preliminary round result of 3 buoys at this rope length. Andy Pape had to go last - and did not make it. His 4,25 buoys put him on second place and made Or the gold medal winner and European Champion.
Next was Ladies’ Slalom. While Nadine Schall from Austria could only improve her result by 1 1/2 buoys to become third and Jana Wittenbrock reached the same result as in the Preliminary Round, Iryna Turets could improve her result for a 1st place with 3 buoys on the 12 m rope.
In Men’s Tricks the 1st and 3rd of the Preliminary Round, Bushyn Siarhei and Miroslav Hribik could both improve their result to 9380 respectively 8420 points - but the big winner was Mikita Papkul from Belarusia, who with two flawless runs reached a final result of 9920 points.
The Belarusian trio was again unbeatable in the Jump Finals. Olga Pavlova could improve her preliminary round result significantly, but not enough to beat her team mates. Iryna Turets was just 20 cms further, but not as far as in the preliminary round - which gave Julia Meier-Gromyko the chance for her second gold medal on that day. And she used this chance, with exactly the same distance as Iryna the day before.
No place on the spectators grandstand was available anymore when the last event of the day, the Men’s Jump Final was due. The local hero, Andreas Pape, of course was a favorite in this event, but it was clear that it would not be easy to beat last year’s World Champion, Manfred Hintringer. Jochen Luers from Germany defended his third place from the previous day, but who would make the run for Gold medal? The crowd was frenetic when both skiers, Andreas and Manfred, jumped a personal best with 60,3 meter each! And with having the same result, there was only one way to decide who would be the winner: another two jumps by both of them for the tie break. Manfred had to go first, but Andreas jumped further, reaching 58,4 m. Manfred went again and it was a good jump - would that be the title? Andreas had to leave the dock before knowing the distance Manfred had jumped. He only heard the spectators screaming when he passed the far corner of the cableski and went for the jump ramp. This jump was bad and he knew it. Disappointed he let the handle go and realized only some seconds later by the screaming and waving crowd that he indeed had won. Manfred’s jump had been short by 30 cms!
Iryna Turets and Mikita Papakul won the Overall titles, making them both winner of three Gold medals, including the Team title.
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