Seven youngsters – among them a reigning Champion and a pair of record-breaking siblings – will compete for Great Britain at the Europe & Africa Youth Waterski Championships being held in Spain next week.

They are among 123 athletes from 22 countries who will be going for gold. The event will crown champions in two age categories – Under 14s and Under 17s.

The GB team is made up of:

UNDER 14s

Lara Cosgrove (11) of Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire (Just left Berkhamsted Prep and is starting at Berkhamsted Girls’ School, Hertfordshire in September).

Isabel Cosgrove (13) of Chalfont St Peter, Buckinghamshire (Berkhamsted Girls’ School, Hertfordshire).

Buddy Carrington (12), of Brotherton, West Yorkshire (Sherburn High School, Sherburn in Elmet, North Yorkshire).

UNDER 17s

Harley Coster (15) of Camberley, Surrey (Collingwood College, Camberley).

Seb Turp (16) of Gosfield, Essex (Colchester Institute, Colchester).

Charlie Fearn (15) of Sheffield, South Yorkshire (Bradfield School, Sheffield).

Willow Skipsey (15) of Chichester, West Sussex (Just left Chichester Free School and is starting at Chichester College in September).

With the exception of Buddy Carrington, who will compete only in the tricks event, the GB squad will be demonstrating their skills in the three waterski disciplines of slalom, tricks and jumping.

All the athletes have represented the nation at this level before and many of them were in the squad that picked up seven medals at the 2024 Europe & Africa Youth Championships in Italy, including Under 14s Team silver.

The outstanding performer at those Championships was Harley Coster, who won four individual medals in Under 14 Boys – gold in jump, bronze in both slalom and tricks and silver overall. Last year Coster also broke the Under 14 Boys’ British slalom record. He has now moved up to the Under 17s age category, so will face the tough challenge posed by older, more experienced skiers this year.

Isabel (Issy) Cosgrove was the other individual medallist at the 2024 Championships. Then only 12, she won bronze in Under 14 Girls’ slalom, breaking her own Under 14 Girls’ British record in the process.

She will be joined, once again, by her sister, Lara, who is one of the youngest competitors at the Championships.

Issy and Lara have a host of British records between them in slalom, tricks and jump. At the end of June, Issy set a new Under 14 Girls’ GB jump record of 31.7 metres during a Junior Pro competition in Spain.

Charlie Fearn was a medallist at the 2023 Europe & Africa Youth Championships where he won bronze in the Under 14 Boys’ Jump.

The 2025 Europe & Africa Youth Waterski Championships will take place from Wednesday 16 to Sunday 20 July at Botaski in Seseña, near Madrid, Spain.

NOTES FOR EDITORS

The full schedule and results will be available here https://www.iwwfed-ea.org/classic/25EURO06

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

Photos of the athletes can be found in the dropbox link below. Please credit the photographers where shown.

https://www.dropbox.com/scl/fo/jdcpeo15vtte3m2exaxqv/ABzpsLig_9nBPrTWWQwqO3E?rlkey=0z1g2cqe7svg2lxup4kffubqd&dl=0

WATER SKIING EXPLAINED

Jumping

Water ski jumping is a spectacular high-adrenaline event which involves skiing on two skis over a ramp at speed, taking off and landing on the water to ski away. There are no style points. All the matters is the distance travelled and a successful landing.

Slalom

The boat travels at a constant speed in a straight line down the middle of the slalom course. The skier, on a single ski, has to go through the entrance gates - a pair of buoys in the middle of the course - then virage from side to side across the boat wakes, successfully rounding six turn buoys before going through the exit gates.

Each successful pass results in the rope being shortened, making it increasingly difficult to reach the turn buoys. Eventually, the rope length becomes less than the distance from the boat to the turn buoys so the skier has to use body length and reach to round the buoys. The winner is the skier who completes the most turn buoys at the shortest rope length.

Tricks

The skier is given two 20-second passes to complete as many different tricks as possible. These can vary from a simple 180 degree turn to a somersault with a twist. There are also ‘toehold’ tricks where the skier holds the rope with one foot. Each trick is worth a given number of points according to difficulty. Points are awarded only if the tricks are deemed to have been successfully performed.

Overall

The skier competes in all three separate disciplines of slalom, tricks and jump and the combined scores in each contribute to an overall score.

British Water Ski & Wakeboard (BWSW) 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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