INNISFAIL – Dorien Llewellyn is a Pan American Games champion.
The 23-year-old son of Innisfail’s nine-time world water-skiing champion Jaret Llewellyn won his first gold medal in the overall water-skiing competition at the 2019 Pan American Championships being held in Lima, Peru from July 26 to Aug. 11.
Llewellyn, competing for Canada, finished with a nearly perfect score of 2885.50, out of a possible 3000.
“It was a really cool experience. It was awesome,” said Llewellyn of his gold medal. “Overall (competition) is really tough because you have to do all three events (slalom, trick and Jump).”
Llewellyn, who is the grandson of Innisfailian Chris Llewellyn, won his gold medal on July 30 and also took home medals in two individual events on July 29, a silver in the tricks competition, and a bronze in jump. He also placed fifth in slalom.
“I was fortunate enough to be top seed going into that (overall) final,” he said, noting mistakes by fellow competitors in the slalom event gave him a lead. “I opened up the lead even more throughout tricks and went into jumps with a nice cushion. I just had to get at least one good jump.
“I went out, (with) my first jump and won the tournament,” he added. “I actually stayed out for the next two jumps because I wanted to cherish that experience as much as possible and be on the water throughout the time I had.
“It was really overall, just an amazing experience,” said Llewellyn.
The International Olympic Championships (IOC) of the Pan American regions is held every four years. It was held in Toronto in 2015.
Dorien’s father and Innisfail native Jaret Llewellyn has won overall gold at the Pan American Games once. He also won a silver in a controversial decision at the games in 2015.
“I was not too happy with the outcome in Toronto so it was nice for Dorien to come back and beat the world champion. He beat him in all three rounds,” said Jaret.
“With focusing on school and keeping up all three events, he‘s on a really good path,” he added. “He has trained very hard this year and he’s peaking at the perfect time for the Pan American and the world championship next week (in Malaysia).”
Next up for the younger Llewellyn is the 2019 World Water Ski Championships in Malaysia from Aug. 12 to 18.
“(My) goals are definitely to try to keep this momentum going and take that into the world championships and compete for a world title. Not only for myself overall, but also as a team at the world championships,” Llewellyn concluded.
