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The Grands Prix in Shanghai and
Liuzhou were expected to play a
crucial role in this year’s title races
but in Ski GP1 they proved definitive,
with Jeremy Poret landing his fourth
world title in six years.
If anyone expected it to happen and
with the final round in Sharjah on
19-21 December still looming large,
I doubt it, least of all Poret who went
through a maelstrom of emotions
of self-doubt, frustration and then
elation in the space of a week in China. “In the end Liuzhou was a
perfect weekend for me. It is a good circuit for me,” he said. “After
Shanghai I was very disappointed. I really was not very good and
questioned myself, the Ski, everything. So I looked at myself to
understand why, what was going wrong. I had to wake up.”
After taking thirdoverall in Italyandwinningbothheats to take the
GP title in Spain Poret headed to China in front and in command,
25 points clear of Stian Schjetlein, 28 clear of defending champion
Kevin Reiterer, with Nacho Armillas in between the two.
But in Shanghai the self-doubt started to creep into Poret’s mind
set; after P1 and P2 in qualifying in the previous rounds, P5 in
Shanghai was disappointing. Poret recovered to take second in
race 1 but then managed only fourth in race 2 to take the third
step of the podium. To most riders that is not a disaster, but to
Poret it was. More importantly and worrying for him was the 17
points gained by Reiterer, the gap between the two now just 11
points.
AQUABIKE
38
n° 4December | 2016