Leading Australian waterskier dies following accident during endurance race

SYDNEY – Leading Australian waterskier Sarah Teelow has died as the result of a crash during an endurance race on the Hawkesbury River north of Sydney on Sunday.

Police say Teelow, aged 20, fell off her skis soon after the start of the high-speed 121-kilometer (75 mile) Bridge-to-Bridge race. She was air-lifted to Sydney's Royal North Shore Hospital in a critical condition with spinal and head injuries but died late Monday.

Teelow was the daughter of two-time world waterski champion Tania Teelow and had recently returned from the World Waterski Racing Championships in Spain, where she won the formula 2 category.

Australian Bureau of Statistics figures show that Teelow was the seventh waterskier to die in an accident in Australia in the last five years.