Champions: Russell Johnson, left, presents the Leigh Johnson trophy to the Sapphire crew Aiden Cuff, Tim Pickford, Lachy Nix and Brian Griffin after they won the Southern 80. Photo: Steve Huntley
Sapphire has been crowned the Southern 80 champion after posting a blistering time of 30 minutes and 9.2 seconds, beating out last year’s winner, Superman.
Hold tight - we’re checking permissions before loading more content
Sapphire’s crew of Tim Pickford (driver), Brian Griffin (observer), Lachy Nix and Aiden Cuff (skiers) blasted across the finish line and under the new bridge to clinch their first Southern 80 victory.
Sapphire finished a colossal 49 seconds ahead of defending champ Superman, which crossed the line with a time of 30:58.8.
Superman’s time was quicker than the time that earned it the race in 2020, but this year it was only good enough for second.
Temper 2 finished in third place after crossing the line in 31:33.8.
Griffin, who was part of The Mistress’ winning team in 2016, said he was lost for words after Sapphire’s win.
“I’m just speechless. It’s just great to win it again, it means the world to us,” Griffin said.
“It’s so good to win it here in Echuca-Moama. The Moama Water Sports Club and everyone involved have put on a great race and we’ve finally done it, we couldn’t be happier.
“A lot of hard work has gone into it. Tim, Lachy, Aiden and I have all put a lot of hard effort in.
“We knew we were going pretty well at Five Mile and just had to push hard. The boys were starting to show a little bit of sore legs but they have got big hearts and they brought it home.
“It wasn’t a smooth run, but the boys’ skiing was unreal.”
Gem: Southern 80 winner Sapphire.
Photo by
Steve Huntley
Sapphire was the first super class boat to hit the water during the race after winning the Bakers’ Blitz on Saturday ahead of Superman.
A technical malfunction meant there was plenty of suspense at the finish line as the super class boats got under way.
Sapphire’s on-board timing was not working, meaning there were no live split-times to track its race.
With Sapphire's progress unknown, it was Superman that topped the live timing. It wasn’t until Sapphire passed Wharparilla Dve that word reached the finish line that it was indeed still running.
As it roared across the finish line, the wait began to see when Superman would reach the end. When it did, Sapphire’s victory was confirmed.
Just moments after stepping off the boat, Nix said it was an awesome feeling to be a Southern 80 champion.
“It’s our home race so we’ve always wanted to win this one. We’ve been trying for a bit, so it’s good to come home with a win,” Nix said.
“We put in the hard work yesterday to get number one on the boat, so that made it a bit easier for us, but it wasn’t perfect conditions.
“We’re all rapt to be back out on the water and doing what we love.
“We’re not just mates on the water but we are mates off the water. We’ve been going hard to get a win for a long time so we’re all happy, we are pumped.”
Cuff skied alongside Nix and said he could tell they were doing well as they neared the finish.
“We knew we had a solid run so we were just trying to concentrate and bring it home to the finish line,” Cuff said.
“It was good, we hung in there in the end. We were both a little bit tired towards the end.”
Sapphire was one of the pre-race favourites, but the size of its victory came as a surprise.
Supernova (31:49.9) and Hellbent (31:53.5) finished in fourth and fifth.
Pigs Arsenal crossed the line in sixth with a time of 32:08.8, while The Mistress was seventh with 32:14.2.
Brimstone F1 was unable to start and was the only super class boat not to complete the race.
10°C