{"id":588415,"date":"2026-04-06T04:45:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:45:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588415\/"},"modified":"2026-04-06T04:45:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-06T04:45:11","slug":"murray-river-ski-boat-launches-into-tree-as-mildura-100-race-puts-four-in-hospital","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/588415\/","title":{"rendered":"Murray River ski boat launches into tree as Mildura 100 race puts four in hospital"},"content":{"rendered":"

Four people have been taken to hospital as a result of incidents in the world’s fastest ski race, which was held without skiers for the second straight year on the Murray River. \u00a0<\/p>\n

The Mildura 100, a three-day ski race, went ahead over the long weekend under self-imposed limitations after a tragic year for the sport in 2024 when four skiers\u00a0died<\/a>.<\/p>\n

A man in his 60s was taken to Mildura Base Hospital in a serious but stable condition with upper body injuries after his boat spun out of control on Saturday.\u00a0<\/p>\n

A crew member also went to hospital for a precautionary check.<\/p>\n

Yesterday, two men in their 20s were taken to hospital after their boat overturned due to mechanical failure during racing.<\/p>\n

And in a dramatic incident caught on video, a speedboat careered up the riverbank and into a large gum tree, with no reported injuries.<\/p>\n

\"Dozens<\/p>\n

Mildura Ski Club is confident the event will continue as normal in coming years, despite the incidents.\u00a0 (Supplied: Admedia Australia\/Mildura Ski Club)<\/p>\n

“[It was] pretty scary, bit of a shock for all of us that were sitting on the Victorian side of the river watching it,” said Mildura Rural City Councillor Glenn Milne, who recorded the crash. \u00a0<\/p>\n

“The boat came around the corner and all was going well halfway through the corner [when] all of a sudden it sort of pitched a bit and turned left and straight into the bank and, unfortunately, hit and sort of went up a gum tree on the way and snapped the branch off.”<\/p>\n

A Transport for NSW Maritime spokesperson said officers would determine whether a formal investigation was required.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Need for speed?<\/p>\n

Ski Racing Australia consultant and former Mildura Ski Club president Geoff Thomson said speed was most likely a factor in all three incidents.<\/p>\n

“Three of the incidents we saw were boats pushing a bit hard around the corners,” he said.\"13<\/p>\n

Ski Racing was halted nationally following the death of four water skiers in 2024.\u00a0 (Supplied: Admedia Australia\/Mildura Ski Club)<\/p>\n

“I think when you’re limited in a straight line, you tend to try and make up time around corners.”<\/p>\n

He said the boat that lurched up the river bank had experienced a steering malfunction.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“It’s rare that you have an equipment failure like that in one of these boats, and \u2026 the guy driving that boat is actually a world champion \u2026 very experienced driver,” he said.<\/p>\n

Mr Thomson said the incidents weren’t a good look for the sport and that some of drivers should rethink how they approached corners.<\/p>\n

He said he remained hopeful boats would be pulling water skiers at next year’s event.<\/p>\n

More than 60 boats competed, with a pair of local siblings winning with their boat Hell Yeah.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Brandan McGlynn says all individuals involved are well.\u00a0 (Supplied: Brandan McGlynn)<\/p>\n

Mildura Ski Club president Brandan McGlynn said the driver of the boat that went up the embankment was lucky to walk away unharmed.\u00a0<\/p>\n

He said he was confident the incidents wouldn’t have a negative impact on the race’s future.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“Each incident has a ‘why’, so we’ve just got to workshop all those whys to figure out what we can do to either prevent them or make the incidents less bad,” he said.\u00a0<\/p>\n

“We are more than confident that we are able to run the race [again] exactly the way we’ve run it this year,”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The Mildura 100’s high-speed action attracts thrillseeking competitors and spectators.\u00a0 (Supplied: Glenn Milne)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Four people have been taken to hospital as a result of incidents in the world’s fastest ski race,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":415530,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[64,63,206025,287616,4082,287618,287617,287619,287620,287621,287622,85],"class_list":{"0":"post-588415","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports","8":"tag-au","9":"tag-australia","10":"tag-boat-crash","11":"tag-boating-incident","12":"tag-hospital","13":"tag-men-injured","14":"tag-mildura-100","15":"tag-mildura-100-crash","16":"tag-mildura-100-crash-video","17":"tag-mildura-100-gumtree-crash","18":"tag-murray-river-speed-boat-crash","19":"tag-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588415","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=588415"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/588415\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/415530"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=588415"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=588415"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=588415"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}