FOUR TOP-10 FINISHES FOR CANADA

AT WORLD JUNIOR WATER SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS

LIMA, Peru – Janice Stevens of Morrisburg, Ont., Megan Collins of Toronto and Taryn Grant of Winnipeg all posted top-10 finishes this weekend at the world junior water skiing championships. Canada was also 10th in the team standings.

In women’s tricks, Stevens posted Canada’s best result this weekend finishing seventh earning 3,320 points in the final. Iris Cambray of France won the gold medal, Caroline Hensley of the U.S., was second and Silvia Caruso of Italy third. Collins was 12th and Grant 18th.

Stevens was disappointed with her score.

“The judges didn’t think it was as good as I thought,’’ said Stevens. ‘’They were tough and I lost some valuable points. Still I’m happy with seventh place. I did pretty good.’’

Collins, a double medallist at the Canadian junior championships this year, took eighth spot in slalom in her world junior debut. Hensley won the gold while Stevens was 21st and Grant 25th.

‘’I came within half a buoy of my personal best so I was happy with that,’’ said Collins. ‘’Reaching a final here was my big goal. I battled nerves all week but once the competition started I was less nervous than usual. There were a lot of good skiers so I just tried to ski for the team.’’

Grant, 14, took ninth spot in women’s jump clearing 34.2 metres to equal her personal best. Manon Costard of France was the winner. Collins was 13th.

‘’It was exciting to come here and experience this whole event,’’ said Grant, who started water skiing at age five. ‘’The jump was the last event I learned but it is now my favourite. So I felt I could have jumped better here this weekend.’’

Hensley won the overall title with Collins 11th and Grant 18th.

In men’s competition, Martin Kolman of the Czech Republic took the overall crown. Matt Weninger of Saskatoon was 25th overall placing 19th in slalom, 25th in jump and 27th in tricks.

In the team standings, the U.S., France and Australia were 1-2-3 respectively. Canada was 10th out of 22 countries.

‘’This is a rebuilding year for us with the juniors and I was pretty impressed with how we did,’’ said Canadian national team coach Steve Bush of North Vancouver. ‘’Right off the bat on the first day everyone on our team got personal bests. To break top-10 here as a team and make some finals exceeds our expectations.’’