Great Britain’s Claire O’Hara has won her fifth ICF World Championship squirt title with a thrilling final run on the opening day of competition at San Juan in Argentina.
In the men’s competition, 50-year-old American Clay Wright won his third squirt world title, 20 years exactly after he won his first.
His performance included a high-scoring ‘mystery’ move which saw him disappear under the water for more than 20 seconds.
“I just really wanted to make squirt boating look cool,” Wright said.
“My highest scoring run was good, I’m psyched to win for sure, but sticking that mystery move on the end, that was everything.
“I’d be happy just to get that in front of this crowd, I’m stoked.”
Japan’s Hitomi Takaku moved into the lead in the women’s competition with her final run, leaving O’Hara with the task of posting a score close to 1000 with the last run of the competition to take the gold.
“I knew after Hitomi’s last ride that it was going to be close, and then she took the lead and I thought ‘okay, game on!” O’Hara said.
“And then I started, and it was falling to pieces and I thought ‘oh no, here we go’.
“I just had to totally reset, and I knew if I got three or four of my main tricks and my mystery it would be game on. I’m just so happy, all day I haven’t been able to hit a 1000, and then I did it.”
WATCH HIGHLIGHTS OF THE OPENING CEREMONY AND THE SQUIRT COMPETITION HERE
It was O’Hara’s ninth overall World Championship title, and she said one of her most difficult.
“This one is probably one of the hardest,” she said.
“Normally about 2000 points is what we’re aiming for, but this venue is so challenging, unbelievably hard.
“I wanted it, and I’m so happy that I’ve got it.”
RESULTS – SQUIRT
Women
- O’HARA Claire (GBR)
- TAKAKU Hitomi (JPN)
- BRUNO Anna (USA)
Men
- WRIGHT Clay (USA)
- EDWARDS Alex (GBR)
- ROGERS David (GBR)
