AQUABIKE
World title hopes disappear after breaking whilst leading title rival
Teddy Pons in race 1 in China. The frustration of Cyrille Lemoine
who started the year on a high winning in Qatar then enduring
five DNFs from six starts.
But perhaps themoment and individual that captured the season
best was Slovenia’s Rok Florjancic’s final flourish in China. A
successful title defence completed, unbeaten in 23 heats on
the tour the 29-year-old from Maribor delivered one last epic
performance to round out the year.
The routine, the tricks, simply breathtaking and one point from
perfection, the judges scoring him 99 out of a possible 100
for variety, quantity and style. Asked what went wrong, the
undisputedWorld Champion said, “I guess I still need to improve.”
From Qatar to Italy the Championship then headed to Ibiza. In
Runabout Jeremy Perez led, in Ski Poret with Jennifer Menard
and Estelle Poret enjoying a private battle Menard with the
advantage.
Inheat 1 inRunabout TeddyPonsproducedabrilliant performance
to take his first win on the UIM-ABP tour and moved into first
place in the title race.
The Frenchman trailed countryman and pre-race Championship
leader Jeremy Perez for four laps but then hit the front and
despite consistent pressure from Perez throughout the
next 16 laps with his lead cut to under two seconds in the
closing stages, held off the onslaught to run out the winner.
Behind the lead two, Spanish rider Jordi Tomas Jimenez and
defending World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq traded
places, Abdulrazzaq grabbing the advantage on lap 4, the
Spaniard’s challenge fizzling out on lap 12, retiring a lap later.
Sweden’s Lars Akerblom produced one of his best rides on the
tour, moving up and through the field from 13th place at the end of
the first lap, scything his way through the pack to finish in fourth
ahead of Francois Medori, with Alejandro Molina grabbing the
bragging rights as the first Spanish rider past the chequered flag.
In Ski the title race was hotting-up and turning into a classic
with America’s Chris MacClugage clearly on a roll after winning
the Italian Grand Prix, simply outclassing the field to win
unchallenged from start-to-finish by 23 seconds from his main
rival and Championship leader, Jeremy Poret.
With MacClugage running away with heat 1 Poret faced pressure
from Spain’s Nacho Armillas who in turn had Portugal’s Tiago
Sousa snapping at his heels. Poret held firm but Armillas felt the
pressure, making a mistake on the last lap to let Sousa through
to grab third.
The middle order saw Italy’s Alberto Monti hold off Morgan Poret
to take fifth, with Tomaz Kete winning a three way fight over
Steven Loiodice and Alex Barret.
Spain’s
European
Champion
Sandra
Fernandez
Rodriguez was the best of the ladies, finishing ahead
of Estelle Poret and Marta Sorrentino, on a bad day for
the points leader Jennifer Menard who was disqualified.
20 | H20 MAGAZINE - NOVEMBER 2014
h2oracing.net
