US Masters Three of Britain's World Class Performance squad qualified for tomorrow's US Masters Finals at Callaway Gardens in Georgia USA today. Out early in the women's slalom start draw Sarah Gatty Saunt rounded 2 buoys on the 11.25m rope for the last place in the four woman final. Only three skiers from the elite field managed to better Sarah's score with USA's Kristi Overton-Johnson leading them, just one buoy ahead of Sarah. Jason Seels continued a season where he has consistently challenged for the top places off the Ski Fly ramp by also taking fourth place with a distance256 feet (77.9m), tying with American Scott Ellis and pushing world jump champion Jaret Llewellyn out of the finals. America's Freddy Krueger occupies the top spot with a distance of 282 feet (85.8m) The talk of the day though was about those skiers not present on the waters of Robin Lake as 8 of the invited slalom skiers had those invitations withdrawn after a dispute with the organisers over the prizemoney. Unfortunately this included Britain's Jodi Fisher who had qualified for his first ever US Masters after winning last year's British Masters event. Fisher said "Obviously I was disappointed not to get to ski in my first ever US Masters but I believe this was the right decision and will ensure organisers address the disparities in prizemoney that we have seen lately. I'll now be working hard to qualify again next year". He set about that straight away by travelling to Charleston and scoring a season's best of 1 buoy @ 10.25m at the Memorial Day Trophy. The withdrawal left just 2 skiers in tomorrow's slalom final which will see Britain's Slalom World Champion and 12 times US Masters champion, Andy Mapple having to fight off the efforts of American Jeff Rodgers for his 13th title. Though without a full field to compete against Mapple still put in a superb performance breaking the site record with a score of 2 buoys on the 10.25m rope length. US Masters 1st Round Results, Callaway Gardens, Georgia Men's Slalom 1st Andy Mapple GBR 2 buoys @ 10.25m 2nd Jeff Rogers 4.5 buoys @ 11.25m Women's Slalom 1st Kristi Overton Johnson USA 3 buoys @ 11.25m 2nd Toni Neville AUS 2.5 buoys @ 11.25m 3rd Karen Truelove 2.5 buoys @ 11.25m 4th Sarah Gatty Saunt 2 buoys @ 11.25m Men's Ski Fly 1st Freddy Kruegger USA 85.8m 2nd Curtis Sheers AUS 81.2m 3rd Scott Ellis USA 78.1m 4th Jason Seels GBR 77.9m For further details please contact: John Wood Performance Director British Water Ski 390 City Road London EC1V 2QA Tel: (+44)(0)7831 213536 ©1999-2004 Design Suite