George, Karl and Hugh Donaldson were all in superb form at the Asia-Oceania Waterski Championships.Ashburton water-skiing dynamos, the Donaldsons, have been back doing what they do best, again.

The highly successful family had three of its members competing at the biannual, Asia-Oceania Waterski Championships in Northland.

And as is becoming customary, they competed with great success.

Twin brothers George and Hugh were in fine form, while elder brother Karl produced some great results as well.

All three produced personal best efforts during the championship and they all managed to place in the top five skiers overall.

The championships consisted of nine countries from around Asia and Oceania with all five disciplines on offer across two different lakes.

Barefoot and the tournament competition was held at Lake Kereta while Wakeboard and Ski Racing was held at Lake Karipiro.

New Zealand claimed overall honours in the 40+ teams event, beating Japan in Australia and they also finished second in two other categories, open teams and under 17 teams – both behind Australia.

Karl, who competed in the New Zealand open team, was up against some strong opposition but produced consistent results over the three events to place fifth overall.

He produced a personal best in both rounds of jump – a notable achievement considering it hadn’t been something he’d been seriously focusing on leading up to the event due to Canterbury’s northerly tail winds.

It was Hugh who claimed honours with a gold medal in the under 17 overall category – finding a spot on the podium in all three events – a further recognition of his efforts which saw him ranked 8th at the Junior Worlds earlier this year.

He claimed three silvers in the three events and picked up personal bests along the way too.

George had a difficult start to his championships when he fell on his first flip and missed out on making the tracks final.

That put the pressure on him and he produced a remarkable comeback to find himself claiming the bronze medal on the overall podium, helped in large to his gold medal effort in the slalom event where he produced a personal best.

By Matt Markham © The Ashburton Guardian - 10 February 2017