World Cup Riders at Palm Hills Development in Egypt

These great World Cup Video clips are also automatically now uploaded to YouTube so that the World Cup is not to be the World’s best kept secret ! Within just 12 hours of the Egypt Wakeboard upload, we have had 2,148 Views of the Mens Finals alone. Help to spread the word by passing the URL of our World Cup Website here to all your friends. You can also follow our World Cup details on our Waterski and Wakeboard World Cup FaceBook Group site – and make sure you watch out for our regular updates here too. All 2008 WORLD CUP Results are available here immediately after each Stop.

World Cup Riders visit the Pyramids

With unusual weather patterns now almost commonplace globally, the beach area location for the event developed rough water in the early part of the Preliminary Round. It was at this point that a decision was made to bring the Wakeboard Riders into the man-made Palm Hills Lagoon within the actual swimming pools and entertainment area. Adopting an Obstacle format made this a highly successful decision.  What impressed all of the very large numbers of spectators was the response from the Riders themselves as they constructed the wide range of obstacles in less than one hour !  Andrew Adkison (USA), Rusty Malinoski (CAN), Phillip Soven (USA)  Jeff Weatherall (NZL) and Dean Smith (AUS), did a first class construction job. One of the real crowd favorites was a huge two tier floating pontoon and launch ramp in the Lagoon. Starting off in the tight arena surrounded by several thousand Egyptian spectators, the first obstacle was this massive pontoon. It was followed by eight rails of varying sizes around the perimeter and designed to test all levels of skill. At one point, Australian commentator Kristen Bower positioned himself on top of the structure and reigning World Cup Rider Phillip Soven (USA) succeeded in clearing both the huge pontoon obstacle plus Bower to receive an enthusiastic response from the spectators standing just an arm’s length from all the action. It was also perfect for the Photographers and TV crews.

Rusty Malinoski takes on the huge obstacle

The complexity of the Palm Hills Lagoon course pushed some Riders to their absolute limit and for several  Pro Women, it was quite a test. China’s Chen LiLi fell on one rail maneuver and survived. The experienced Denise DeHaan (NED) also struggled and especially with the high floating pontoon obstacle. World Cup and international star and US 2008 Masters Champion Dallas Friday (USA) had not fully recovered from an earlier eye infection but was still able to secure the bronze medal here at Hacienda Bay. The final battle was between the multiple Pro Wakeboard Tour winner, Californian Shelby Kantar (USA), and the talented 15 year old two-time Girls World Champion, Raimi Merritt (USA). On this occasion, it was the 15 year old Merritt who dominated with a superb performance on both the daunting Palm Hills pontoon and the rails.

Pro Women Winners at Palm Hills Development

The Pro Men Riders kicked off with four Heats to decide the Finalists. The eleven countries represented included Australia, Belgium, Great Britain, Egypt, New Zealand, Netherlands, Republic of South Africa, Korea, Italy, Canada and Switzerland. These Heats produced some real surprises. Losing out in Heat 1.  was Britain’s Dan Nott but making it through was Australia’s young 15 year old sensation Harley Clifford. Those who also reached the highest scores were Quentin Delefortrie (BEL), Nick Davies ((GBR), Trevor Hansen (USA) and past World Cup Champion Jeff Weatherall (NZL).  Philip Soven (USA) and Rusty Malinoski (CAN) also made it through.

Pro Men Winners at Palm Hills Development

As the Pro Men’s Finals began, the spectators packed the Palm Hills Lagoon shoreline and the enormous sound system created a perfect atmosphere. Surprisingly, first to feel the pressure was the reigning World Cup Champion Phillip Soven (USA). He struggled with the large pontoon. This was not his day. The layout of the bunched up rails in the Lagoon also made it difficult to score them all. Likewise, Jeff Weatherall (NZL) and Trevor Hansen (USA) ran in to trouble. Canada’s Rusty Malinoski almost made it to the Podium and was just clipped by the young rising star Harley Clifford (AUS). It was also encouraging to see Egypt’s National Wakeboard Champion, Ahmed Hossam, perform so well on his first obstacle course.  The final points battle was eventually between Nick Davies (GBR) and World Wakeboard Champion Andrew Adkison (USA). To the surprise of many, it was Nick Davies who eventually took the gold medal on this occasion and his first major international podium victory.

Sherif Seif Nasr, Senior Vice President of Palm Hills Developments, presented the impressive medals and trophies. Also in attendance were Kuno Ritschard, President of the International Water Ski Federation, Hisham El Keshen, President of Styrx Sports Marketing and Emile Wassan, Vice President of the Egyptian Waterski Federation.

With music filling the evening air, the warm Mediterranean breeze cooling the sun drenched Palm Hill spectators and the sun setting on the horizon, this first Egypt World Cup experience was one for all to remember.  Egypt is definitely now on the World Cup circuit.

Thoughts will now move to the next World Cup Stop in Singapore on October 10/12 – and then on to Malaysia and Qatar to round up the 2008 season.

PRO WOMEN

1. Raimi Merritt (USA)
2. Shelby Kantar (USA)
3. Dallas Friday (USA)

PRO MEN

1. Nick Davies (GBR)
2. Andrew Adkison (USA)
3. Harley Clifford

Dallas in safe hands

Within minutes of receiving the worrying news of the eye infection of Dallas Friday, in transit from the USA, the Palm Hills Developments team and Stryxsports were on the case in Cairo.  They already have a designated escort waiting for her at the Hotel and she will be taken immediately to an International Eye Hospital to make sure all is OK.  Very many thanks to our friends in Egypt for being so helpful and so quick to respond. Every effort has been made to ensure the full success of this first Wakeboard World Cup Stop at Hacienda Bay on Friday and Saturday. Watch this space for all the details.

Dallas Friday Drama

We have just received word from Darla Friday, mother of our great World Cup Wakeboard Star, Dallas Friday, that some drama almost prevented her from boarding her Plane to join us at our World Cup Stop today in Egypt. Last Friday in Milwaukee, USA, Dallas picked up an eye infection. By yesterday morning, Monday, her eye was swollen shut. However, as a total athlete, she did not let this prevent her from boarding her Plane and is expected to land at Cairo Airport at 14.25hrs today, Tuesday. All will be done to help as best possible when she arrives. Hats off to Dallas – and we wish her and all the Riders a wonderful Palm Hills Developments World Cup Stop here in Egypt.

Egypt give warm welcome to Riders

The World Cup Riders will transfer from Cairo, via an excursion to the Pyramids, to the Hacienda Bay Palm Hills Developments in the Alexandria area. This spectacular Mediterranean beach side location will host the first ever World Cup Stop in Egypt. Today’s temperature at Hacienda Bay is a warm 30C / 90Fh and will rise to 32C / 94Fh for the World Cup Finals on Saturday next. At the moment, Cairo is reporting low winds of 5kph / 3mph and humidity at a very comfortable 46%. Both may be a little higher at the World Cup site this weekend.

The World Cup Wakeboard athletes from the 12 countries involved will be among the first members of the public to actually see and experience the new Palm Hills Development (PHD) at Hacienda Bay.  This impressive coastal residential development provides a perfect backdrop for this inaugural Egypt Stop. Official boat sponsors MasterCraft have already shipped the competition boats to the site and there will be World Cup Practice today and Wednesday for those early arrivals. The Semi-Finals will be on Thursday and the Finals on Friday, August 15th.

Past World Champion Andrea Fountain in action

ALSO ANNOUNCED TODAY BY THE INTERNATIONAL WATER SKI FEDERATION WAS THE LAUNCH OF THE NEW WATERSKI & WAKEBOARD WORLD CUP WEB SITE. All the latest World Cup updates, photos and results will be available here throughout the year. Make sure you now bookmark this URL. Look closely – the name says it all !

http://waterskiandwakeboardworldcup.com

The fact that so many of the current World Cup Riders are competing in Egypt makes the possible winners of this Stop almost impossible to predict. None will have local site knowledge at this new Hacienday Bay location. This will level the Palm tree sun drenched playing field for all. However, as usual, there are the gifted male and female Riders who are always difficult to discount and have the skill to reach the top of this World Cup pyramid !  Keep an eye out in particular for the Men – Andrew Adkison (USA), Phillip Soven (USA), Jeff Weatherall (NZL) and Daniel Watkins (AUS). On the Women’s side, watch out for Raimi Merritt and Dallas Friday (USA), Andrea Fountain (NZL) and Chen LiLi (CHN). IWSF World Champion Dallas Friday and international star Phillip Soven both took the previous World Cup Stop titles in November last in Doha in Qatar.  Both are again in top form at the moment. Raimi Merrit, one of the youngest rising stars, has been on the Podium more often than most recently. She took second place at the Qatar World Cup Stop. Andrew Adkison is certainly on a roll at the moment having taken the IWSF World Wakeboard Champion title last November where he was just piped by Phillip Soven in the last World Cup Stop for that title. Both Andrea Fountain and Jeff Weatherall are past IWSF World Champions and both Daniel Watkins and Chen LiLi have also taken Wakeboard World Cup titles as part of their enormous haul of previous victories. With the weatherman predicting hot temperatures, the action out on the warm Mediterranean water will be even hotter !

MasterCraft the official World Cup boat sponsor

As ever, this World Cup Stop will feature both as a short NEWS EDIT and as a TV SHOW for distribution to over 500 million viewers. Watch out for World Cup broadcast details, where available, video clips, photos and news updates on : http://waterskiandwakeboardworldcup.com

To add to the atmosphere of the event, all 18 male Riders and 8 female Riders will be escorted on a private visit to the Pyramids on the way to the competition site itself. This will present a first class photo opportunity. The Wakeboard Council of the International Water Ski Federation (IWSF) has confirmed  that the top ranked Riders from the following countries will participate : New Zealand, Australia, Canada, Great Britain, Korea, Belgium, USA, Italy, Netherlands, Switzerland, Great Britain and China.

The outline World Cup programme at The Palm Hills Development in Hacienda Bay is as follows :

Arrival of Athletes – August 12/13th
Semi Finals – Thursday August 14th
Finals – Friday August 15th

Palm Hills Developments (PHD) is one of Egypt’s premier real estate development companies. With a pipe-line of 14 major projects and a land bank of over 33 million sq.m., the business is rapidly expanding from residential housing to retail, office and tourism projects. Its properties are in East and West Cairo, the North Coast, Ain Sokhna and the Red Sea area. MasterCraft will again provide all the World Cup competition boats and technical support.

The 2007 World Cup season finished in Doha, Qatar, in the Arabian Gulf, with the very best Riders taking home the coveted World Cup titles. Top of the podium then were Philip Soven (USA), Andrew Adkison (USA) and Chad Sharpe (CAN). In the women’s event it was Dallas Friday (USA), Raimi Merritt (USA) and Shelby Kantar (USA). All six top 2007 performers are included in the line-up for this opening event in Egypt to begin the World Cup battle all over again. Unless injuries interfere, it looks like this World Cup Stop in Hacienda Bay, sponsored by Palm Hills Developments, will ensure that the very best Riders in the World today will make their first visit to Egypt a spectacular inaugural experience.

Following Dubna in Russia, and this Palm Hills Developments World Cup Stop in Egypt, the Waterski & Wakeboard World Cup series will then move on to Singapore, India, Malaysia and Qatar. Stops are currently under discussion for as far ahead as 2012.