All six Australian world champions, who won their titles back in November, will be competing at this year’s event, as well as a raft of other world-class competitors.
Echuca’s Jake Clancy was at the world championships, placing third in the Men’s F2 category, and is excited to compete in his home race this year.
“I know the river pretty well ‘cause we’re on it all the time, so it’s good to do a home race, and just being around everyone you know is good too,” he said.
“You don’t get that when you’re racing away from home.”
Clancy relishes competing in the Southern 80 not just because it’s his home venue, but because of the unique challenge of the course itself.
“Echuca, compared to some of the other venues, with the amount of turns and shorter straights against more open, longer rivers, it really makes things interesting so it’s a great race,” he said.
“It adds a level of challenge to it to see who can actually get around corners quick compared to going in a straight line.”
Clancy was set to ski behind Shattered Racing, a boat he had taken on the 80 with in the past.
However, things couldn’t come together to get the boat ready for race day.
“(It’s) a shame because we’ve had a team there that we’ve been putting (effort) in for a little while to try and build up, but that’s the way racing goes,” he said.
“We’ve had to do a bit of a swap around but we’re good to go.”
Instead, Clancy will race with two different teams, skiing alongside Rhys Duggan behind 99 F1, with driver Mark Seamons and observer Wayne Duggan, in the Unlimited Inboard Social and Super Social classes.
He will also be joining Sixteen 48 and its team of Adam Tuddenham (driver), Sam Perry (observer), and Michael James (skier) in the President’s Dash and Sportsman’s Expert class.
Of the Australian world champions attending the event this year, three — Emma Barnes, Leilani Cartledge, and Kohdi Cartledge — hail from Echuca-Moama.
Barnes won the F2 Women’s category, while Leilani and Kohdi won the Junior Girls’ and Boys’ categories respectively.
Fellow world champions who won their respective categories Carter Robertson (Open Men’s), Brendan Tidswell (F2 Men’s) and Nellie McMillan (Open Women’s) will also be at the 80 this year.
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