Epic battle for Overall

from Waterski Journal N°6

by Waterski Journal

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DORIEN LLEWELLYN

JOEL POLAND

The overall title defines the greatest skier on the planet: the most accomplished one, the one that can fly far, trick fast, and strongly hold the handle in the slalom course on a short line. The overall competition has been exciting this whole year because of two incredible skiers: Joel Poland from the United Kingdom and Dorien Llewellyn from Canada.

Since April 2017, the world record was held by one of the greatest skiers of all time, Adam Sedlmajer. He set the record at Lake Hancock, Winter Garden, Florida. His scores were:

4@10,25 in slalom 10,640 points in tricks 65,7m in jump

Adam Sedlmajer

Adam beat his own record in 2018. His scores were:

3@10,25 in slalom 10,750 points in tricks 66,3m in jump

Earlier this year, Joel Poland competed at the Ski Fluid Classic tournament at Lake Grew, Polk City, Florida. His scores were:

4@10,75 in slalom 11,350 points in tricks 68,2m in jump

Joel Poland

One expected that Joel’ s record would be nearly impossible to break for a while, but Dorien Llewellyn broke it five months later on the same lake.

2,5@10,75 in slalom 11,610 points in tricks 70m in jump

Dorien Llewellyn

Both Joel and Dorien showed up at Worlds with the hunger to be crowned overall world champion. Slalom was the first event. Both started with strong slalom scores, Dorien with 5,5@10,75m and Joel with 2@10,25m.

Advantage Joel.

They jumped on Friday, where Joel flew nearly his personal best with 69m. Dorien broke the splash eye with a 69,9m flight! OMG, as they say, the battle continued. It was unclear who had the overall lead after two events, but one thing was certain, the suspense remained - - not only for the world title, but also Joel now had a shot at the overall world record again!

Trick prelims happened on Saturday morning. Dorien and Joel were on the dock together, skiing back to back. This means that Joel would not know Dorien ’ s score before hopping into the water. Dorien scored 10,910 points. Joel absolutely crushed his passes, scoring 11,620 points. Joel took the lead outright before the finals and again took back the world overall record in 2021!

Dorien won the world trick title after all, adding some more drama to these unbelievable world championships. The jump finals was the last event of the week, and the only one that could give us a champion or another. Dorien was the top seed and last off the dock, knowing that he had to go get an almost impossible 74m jump. Despite giving it his all, Dorien did not jump beyond 67,8m. Joel got second in jump and is the new Overall world champion.

See you in two years; the show is only starting!