Software Novice Here - Improve this image for me

About a week ago, a person who regularly post in the sports and action photography mentioned this forum for the amazing things people here can do to improve an image.. ie -- more specifically --removing cluttered background from the action subjects.

I have had a blast just looking at the fixes that people come up with.. and the sense of humor that is exhibited in the name of fun.  I love it.  Keep it coming.

Currently, for my photo post processing, I am using Corel PaintShop Pro X2 for just the basic features.. brightness, contrast, sharpness, smart fix.

I now have purchased Corel PaintShop Pro X5 and am eager to learn more than just the basics.

Here the deal.. attached is an action image that I really like because of the facial expressions of people having fun sliding down the world longest forced air water slide as part of 2012 Reno River Festival and Reno Run Amuck Relay Race.

Honestly this was a difficult shot for me because I was shooting into the sun, distance from the action, shutter lag when using a flash, among other factors.

Additionally, I was shooting in portrait mode, but cropped the image to landscape for the purposes of this exercise. The cropped landscape image represents about 1/3 size of the original image.

So here is the deal..

Other than improving / fixing the blown highlights.. what would you do to make this into an outstanding image -- worthy of being considered a EVENT POSTER.  Feel free to add TEXT to the image, add different background... in other words.. knock yourselves out have have fun.

Much obliged.