Britain’s Kim Lumley won the Women’s category in the world famous Catalina Water Ski Race at Long Beach California on Saturday for the 7th time. Incredibly, she also finished 3rd overall amongst the Men, with former World Champion Todd Haig (USA) winning overall for the 9th time.
The 27 year old Cambridgeshire athlete shattered the all-time Women’s record by 5 minutes in this 61st running of the Catalina Water Ski Race which sees skiers and 45 foot Miami Vice style powerboats race from the Queen Mary at Long Beach to Catalina Island and back in the annual 64 mile international event. Reaching speeds of almost 100mph in the shark infested ocean, Kim fought off competition from other top women from around the world including all but two men.
Kim became the World Water Ski Racing Champion in June 2005 and she aims to win back that title when she competes in the 16th World Water Ski Racing Championships in Belgium between 19th and 26th July. The first race will take place in Ghent, followed by Genk, Antwerp and Viersel. Up to date news of the World Championships will be posted .
Robbie Llewellyn of skirace.net said; “to win Catalina once is a dream for all ski racers but to win it seven times is incredible and now Kim is the fastest women ever to have done this world famous water ski race. This will undoubtedly supercharge her confidence to bring the World title back to Britain from Belgium this month”.
The personable British athlete only began competing in 1996 and from 1997 she has represented Great Britain at every World Championship event. With dozens of international titles under her belt, she is currently tipped to become the 2009 World Champion with her boyfriend Robert Manchett and Belgium boat maker Nico Bertels as her crew.
As a result of her achievements the netball promoter from Cambridgeshire has been honoured by British Water Ski with the coveted General Lascelles award and previously nominated for the Sunday Times Sports Woman of the Year Champions Award. In 2005 she was named BBC Cambridgeshire Sports Personality of the Year. Kim has enjoyed a great deal of Radio and prime-time TV coverage on a variety of well known shows such as Ready Steady Cook.
Contact:
Robbie Llewellyn, Publisher
Skirace.net
020 3239 4283
robbie@skirace.net
http://www.skirace.net
