WATER SPORTS: NANTWICH youngster Ant Burgess is jumping for joy after a fabulous season on the British freestyle jetski circuit.

The acrobatic 15-year-old finished second in the JSRA British Championships and was crowned overall champion of the Freestyle National Tour.

But the secret to his success, he admits, was a rather special trick he learnt from former jetski world champion Marc Sickerling which has been wowing judges and fans up and down the country all summer.

After attending a special 'jetski clinic' hosted by the German ace, Ant started to pull off a stunt never before performed by a skier in the UK.

With the help of two motorboats steaming towards him to create an extra large wave in the water, Ant has been able to perfect the art of the 'Invert', or 360° back-flip, to leave fellow competitors trailing in his wake.

The trick helped him win five of the six meetings in the FNT series, slipping to second in the other contest after his own trusted ski developed an electrical fault and he had to borrow one from another competitor.

In the British Championship, he finished third in four of the six events, won one and finished second in the other two.

Dad Pete said: 'Ant would like to say a huge thank you to this year's sponsors for helping him go so far this season.

'Giles and Lisa at Air Time Products have kept the ski in tiptop condition and supplied him with all the parts, and Gecko Headgear gave him the helmet he used in practice while trying to perfect the back-flip.

'Finally, Oxygen Clothing have kept him in sports gear off the water, and Dean Shelfer at THC Industries has supplied the MX gloves he needs to use for all that time on the water.'

The end of the season proper does not mean Ant will be putting his feet up for long.

He is off to Ibiza next week to do a series of displays at the annual Jet Bou event, and there will be more of the same at the Wight Air 05 extreme sports extravaganza on the Isle of Wight at the end of the month.

Then it will be a hard winter's training as Ant goes in hunt of the British Championships next summer, hopefully booking a place at the World Finals at Lake Havau, USA, in October 2006.