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The second round of the Air Nautiques Australian Pro Tour of Wakeboarding at Stoney Park in Port Macquarie saw a reverse order of our top two spots in both the Pro Men and Pro Women divisions. The stage is now set for a nail biting final round in Nudgee Beach, QLD with the title race still wide open and a completely new format being introduced for the decider.

Harley Clifford (2nd), Jimmy LaRiche (1st) and Trevor Hansen (3rd)

Stoney Park, being a dedicated wakeboarding lake, added sliders into the mix for the first time this year and the Super Air Nautique 210 delivered a faultless wake in the just over 5-foot deep lake. Last year's reigning champion Dean Smith, who was forced to miss the 2009 tour due to injury, added his technical opinion to our already expert panel of judges and in the results we saw some surprise results in both the qualification and head-to-head finals rounds.

In the Pro Women division, last week's runner up, Hayley Smith, who missed the top spot by 0.4 of a point last week to the U.S.A.’s Melissa Marquadt, applied her rail park wizardry and edged Melissa out to take the win for the second stop of this year's tour. This puts the two of them in a dead heat for the title coming into the final round next week. Last year's tour champion, Amber wing, is following very closely in third place and hasn’t ruled out blitzing the girls in stop 3 and claiming

Melissa Marquardt (2nd), Hayley Smith (1st) and Amber Wing (3rd)

back her overall title. Stop 3 is once again a wake-only event, so it will be down to the wire to see who takes home the tour champion trophy.

In the Pro Men division, last week's third place getter, Thailand’s PJ Bomb struggled to come to grips with the new wake shape despite his brand new Liquid Force team ride and opted out in the fist head-to-head round against a young and hungry World Junior Champion in Sam Thomson, while to advance from the rest of the heats it was a case of the "usual suspects." The top eight looked much like last week's semi final round and when it was all said and done, it was once again four riders from three separate countries that would fight for the $6,800 cash prize.

Jimmy LaRiche

In 4th place was 2006 tour champion Jeff Weatherall closely followed by Trevor Hansen from the U.S.A. (3rd) who battled a semifinal ankle injury to put on "one hell of a show" in the final and just missed the big money. That just left the two young guns to take out the top two spots on the podium once again and, in the end, it was the U.S.A.’s Jimmy LaRiche who took the win over the Aussie Super Grom, Harley Clifford, by the narrowest of margins. The title is now all but out of contention for anyone else but these two charging young guns. So in a repeat of the last year's U.S Junior Pro Tour, it will come down to a case of the last man standing in Brisbane next week.

Jimmy LaRiche

With guys like Jimmy LaRiche, Harley Clifford and last year's Junior champion Ryliegh Pfitzner stepping it up to battle it out with the big boys in the Pro division now, the juniors on the Aussie Pro Tour have been showing some amazingly consistent talent and proving that the junior tour itself is both a worthy and hotly contested stepping stone up to the big league.

Last week's winner, QLD’s Mitch Askew, has graced the podium again in third place after once again taking the hard road and fighting his way back up from the LCQ round, leaving the top spot to NSW’s Jacob Hore. Second place went to the super consistent Brisbane rider, Brad Teunissen. Much like the Pro Men and Women divisions, the juniors are neck and neck coming into the final round in Brisbane this weekend.

Jimmy LaRiche

The Junior Women division was taken out by Rebecca Frangi and young Tanisha Iacconi took the second step on the podium to add another trophy to her mantle.

The Super Air Nautique 210’s will be loaded and towed up to Brisbane this week and we will see how this all unfolds at Nudgee Beach on Friday and Saturday the 6th and 7th of February. It is going to be an exciting weekend with almost a guarantee of three new champions in each of the three main Pro Tour divisions at the end of the weekend.

Round 3: February 6-7, 2009 - Nudgee, Brisbane, QLD

For more information log onto wakeboardevents.com.au.

Jimmy LaRiche

Pro Men
1. Jimmy LaRiche
2. Harley Clifford
3. Trevor Hansen
4. Jeff Weatherall
===
5t. Brad Smeele
5t. Aaron Rathy
5t. Jarrod Askew
5t. Sam Thomson
9. Padiwat "Bomb" Jaemjan
10. Corey Bradley
11. Chris O'Shea
12. Troy Mackey
13. Brenton Priestley
14. Ryliegh Pfitzner
15. Ray Dopper
16. Scott Mackey

Pro Women
1. Hayley Smith
2. Melissa Marquart
3. Amber Wing
4. Shelby Kantar
===
5. Rebecca Grange
6. Caitlin Blaauw

Jr. Men
1. Jacob Hore
2. Brad Teunissen
3. Mitch Askew
===
4. Tony Iacconi
5. Nik Gibson
6. Corey Teunissen

Jr. Women
1. Rebecca Frangi
2. Tanisha Iacconi
3. Krystal Oliver

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