Eleven wakeboarders from the UK are heading off to represent their country at the Europe & Africa Championships, which take place in Cologne, Germany, from Monday 8th to Saturday 13th August.

They include members of the GB Team that finished 5th out of 22 countries at the World Championships in Italy, which concluded last weekend (30th July).

One young rising star who competed at the Worlds will be getting his second taste of top international competition. Marley O’Toole (11) from Camberley in Surrey is the youngest in the GB Team. A pupil at Ravenscote Junior School, he trains at Quays Wake & Ski near his home. He is a hugely talented wakeboarder who is already a two-time National Boys Champion. He made it through to the Boys (under 14s) semi-finals at the 2022 World Championships and finished joint 9th.

From the youngest to the oldest: 56-year-old Mark Osmond from Elstead in Surrey will be competing at his fifth Euros. Osmond, who also trains at Quays Wake & Ski, goes in the Masters Men (40 & Over) category.

Three women are among the GB contingent heading to Germany, including 42-year-old Kate Waldron of Ascot, Berkshire, who was 4th in the Masters Women (40 & Over) at the recent Worlds. (See below for details of all the UK riders competing).

The Europe & Africa Championships are making a welcome return after a prolonged absence due to the Covid pandemic. Usually an annual event, the Championships were last held in Ukraine in 2019.

The 2022 Championships in Germany are being held at Fühlinger See in Cologne as part of the Eat Play Love Festival (https://eatplaylove.de¬) and are for boat wakeboarders.

There are two types of wakeboard competition: cable wakeboarding is where riders use a cable tow and perform tricks over obstacles or features at a specially designed wake park; boat wakeboarding is where the riders are towed behind a boat on a rope and use the large wake created by the boat to perform spectacular tricks. You will see inverts (flips), spins, and combinations of those. Riders are scored on their execution, intensity and composition. Style counts and if the rider grabs their board mid-trick that will help increase their scoring.

Mark Goldsmith, who is making his debut as Team GB Captain and will compete in Germany, said:

"Having last week achieved a fifth place at last week’s IWWF* World Wakeboard Championships at the spectacular Lago del Salto in Rieti, Italy, Team GB wakeboard are delighted to be heading out again this weekend, this time to the IWWF Europe & Africa Championships in Germany.

“With Italy having won the World Championships they are sure to be favourites in the Euros too, but we are expecting strong competition from the hosts, Germany, and many of the neighbouring countries.

“This event is being held on a man-made lake, Fühlinger See, alongside a music and food festival, Eat Play Love, and we are so excited to be competing in front of such large crowds.”

GB SQUAD

MITCH WISE, 21, (Open Men) was born in Redditch in Worcestershire and lives in Birmingham. He is a student at the Royal Holloway University in Surrey and trains at Tallington Lakes in Lincolnshire. This will be his seventh European Championships but his first competing in the Open category. He placed 3rd in Junior Men in both 2017 and 2018.

TRAVIS BEATON, 21, (Open Men) was born and lives in Bury St Edmunds in Suffolk. He trains at Castle Water Ski Club at Tattershall in Lincolnshire. This will be his third Europeans.

BARNES YORKE-DAVIES, 23, (Open Men) was born in Oxford and lives in Cirencester, Gloucestershire. He trains at LDB Wakeschool at Thorpe Park in Surrey. This will be his second Europeans.

CHARLOTTE MILLWARD, 26, (Open Women) was born in Walsall in the West Midlands and now lives in Stafford. She trains at Chasewater Watersports Centre in Burntwood, Staffordshire. This will be her seventh Europeans. In 2011, she won the European Junior Women title and she is the 2022 UK National Women’s Champion.

MELISSA LOCK, 21, (Open Women) was born in Leicester and lives in Thurmaston, Leicestershire. She is studying at Loughborough University and trains at Charnwood Waterski & Wakeboard Club, Leicester. She is a 2 x European bronze medallist in Junior Women and an 8 x UK National Champion in the Groms/Girls and Junior Women categories. This will be her eighth Europeans.

MARLEY O’TOOLE, 11, (Boys 14 & Under), was born in Frimley, Surrey and lives in Camberley, Surrey. He is a pupil at Ravenscote Junior School and trains at Quays Wake & Ski in Frimley, Surrey. He competed at his first World Championships in 2022 and this will be his first Europeans. He won the UK National Boys title in both 2021 and 2022.

JOE HUMPHRIES, 18, (Junior Men 18 & Under), was born in Kettering in Northamptonshire and lives in Geddington near Kettering. He trains at Baston Waterski Club in Lincolnshire. He has just finished his A levels at Kettering Buccleuch Academy and will be going to Lincoln University in September. He has made the finals at two European Championships and this will be his fourth Europeans.

OLLI LODER, 17, (Junior Men 18 & Under), was born and lives in Bournemouth in Dorset. He trains at Ellingham Water Ski & Wakeboard Club in Ringwood, Hampshire, at LDB Wakeschool at Thorpe Park, Surrey and also at Xtreme Gene in Spain. This will be his second Europeans.

KATE WALDRON, 42, (Masters Women 40 & Over), was born in Barnsley, South Yorkshire and lives in Ascot, Berkshire. She trains at LDB Wakeschool at Thorpe Park, Surrey and at Tallington Lakes in Stamford, Lincolnshire. She is the 2022 Masters Women 40 & Over UK National Champion. This will be her first Europeans.

MARK GOLDSMITH, 49, (Masters Men 40 & Over), was born and lives in Paignton, Devon. He trains at Quays Wake & Ski in Frimley, Surrey. He has been on the podium at the UK Nationals six times since 2014, winning on two occasions, and was third in his category in 2022. This will be his third Europeans.

MARK OSMOND, 56, (Masters Men 40 & Over), was born in London and lives in Elstead, Surrey. He trains at Quays Wake & Ski in Frimley, Surrey. He has twice been on the podium at the UK National Championships, in 2014 (2nd) and 2018 (3rd). This will be his fifth Europeans.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

Photos can be found in the dropbox link below. Please credit the photographers, as shown.

https://www.dropbox.com/sh/yfy1qkog8chtlcb/AACBn56ss86konpsqHSKCUMia?dl=0

For further information and more photos of the competitors, please contact: Jane Peel, British Water Ski & Wakeboard Head of Communications on 07802 496927 or jane@bwsf.co.uk

*The IWWF is the International Waterski & Wakeboard Federation, the world governing body for the sport.

You can follow the results live at http://www.iwwfed-ea.org/boatwake/competitions/2022

British Water Ski & Wakeboard is the sport’s national governing body and a non-profit making membership organisation. All its income is invested in developing and protecting water skiing and wakeboarding across the UK from the grassroots to our top athletes.

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