#wakeboard – Irish wakeboarder David O'Caoimh, (21) from Dublin, delivered an incredible performance at the European and African Championships held this weekend in The Netherlands, to take the Gold Medal. David took the highest score through each qualifying heat to make it through to Finals, where he was up against athletes from Russia, Netherlands, UK and Italy.
A professional wakeboarder, who trains overseas for most of the year, David said:
'This has been my goal for years now. It was a tough competition and I'm over the moon but it still hasn't really sunk in yet.'
In a very successful event two Irish athletes also made it to Finals in the Junior Women division. Aisling Deegan (17), from Dublin, placed 4th and Nicole Carroll (17) from Cavan, finished 6th. The Irish Team placed a very respectable 6th at the Championships.
Wakeboarding is one of the fastest growing water sports in the world and there are an estimated 30,000,000 active waterski and wakeboard participants globally. The sport derives from a combination of waterskiing, snowboarding and surfing whereby the wakeboarder is towed behind a (usually specially designed) speedboat at speeds of around 20-25 miles per hour and performs tricks such as flips and spins on the wake of the boat.
