A NINE-YEAR-OLD girl from Basingstoke has been crowned world wakeboarding champion in her age category at a championship held in Berkshire.

Mary Jones from Kempshott won the feature category, and then came second in the traditional category, at the Wakeboarding World Championships held at Liquid Leisure.

This was the first time the world championship has been held in the UK.

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Mary, who attends Kempshott Junior School, has been wakeboarding training for about a year.

Her dad David Jones said Mary trains at the Liquid Leisure.

“She started practising wakeboarding after we went and gave it a go during the lockdown,” David said.

“First we tried doing waterskiing behind the boat. And then we ended up taking up from there and now she goes to the cable all the time to do it. I also do every now and then, but I'm I'm rubbish whereas she is very good.”

Basingstoke Gazette: Mary Jones doing wakeboarding Mary Jones doing wakeboarding

David said his daughter is excited to have won the international championship.

“This was the biggest competition in cable wakeboarding. You had all kinds of pros at the competition and there were lots of different age categories."

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The next competition coming up for Mary is the national championships, which are in the New Forest in October.

She is also looking ahead to participating in the world championship next year.

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