The 2025 Australian World Cup Qualifying League wrapped up yesterday afternoon when the ninth and final leg was held as part of the Sydney Summer Classic Show at SIEC.

Despite a brilliant jumping display put on by Tom McDermott to finish in first and second place ahead of his 12 rival riders, as far as the Championship was concerned, today’s competition had minimal impact.

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While we came into the final leg with the top three riders separated by just two points, a range of circumstances conspired to leave the top five riders on the leaderboard unchanged at the conclusion of the final leg.

The series win went to Victorian rider Phillip Lever. Phil, who picked up the maximum 20 points twice throughout the season, was on top of the leaderboard on 78 points coming into the final leg and by not competing in the last leg, that is where he stayed. Similarly, Jamie Winning-Kermond, winner of the Caboolture leg, who was in second place on 77 points did not compete and as such remained on that score for second place for the season.

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Billy Raymont, last year’s series winner had a chance to advance his score from 76 and possibly repeat his win last year, however, he finished fifth and the 10 points he earnt for doing so, were not enough to add to his total, as only the best five scores of the season count. He remained on 76 points securing third place for the season.

Fourth place in the final leaderboard went to Gemma Creighton, who had jumped to an early lead in the series after winning the first two legs at Shepparton and Werribee. She finished on 66 points after not competing this afternoon.

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Crowd favourite, James Mooney started the final leg in fifth place on 57 points and after picking up nine points for his sixth placing (and dropping a low score of 1) finished on 65 points to just miss out on a top four finish.

Rounding out the top six placegetters, Melissa Blair was rewarded for her consistent performances where she picked up no less than seven points on each of the five occasions that she competed, to finish the season on a total of 46 points.

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We make special mention of a young man who had his first ride in a World Cup Qualifier this afternoon and should be very satisfied with his performance. Hayden Parker finished in third place today beating home a number of much more experienced riders and for his efforts he was awarded 14 World Cup points to see him finish in equal 28^th place, which was the highest placing for a single leg competitor by a long way.

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At the end of the season the unofficial final leaderboard for the 2025 World Cup Qualifying season is listed below. We look forward to the 2026 season, which will commence in mid-March at Shepparton.

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