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JEREMY PORET

SEALS SKI GP1 TITLE

JOHANSSON BACK FOR

SHARJAH FINALE

Sweden’s Johan Johansson has made a

full recovery following his crash in Liuzhou

and will line up in Runabout GP1 at the

Aquabike season finale in Sharjah.

The

42-year-old

from

Gothenburg

sustained four broken ribs in a big spill

involving two other riders in race 1 in

Liuzhou and on the advice of doctors

remained in hospital in China for longer

than expected and ordered not to fly over

concerns that the impact and trauma to

his lungs needed further recuperation and

monitoring.

For the second year in a row Team Russia

proved too strong for their rivals as they

retained their UIM H2O Nations Cup

crown in Shanghai.

Fifteen drivers from eight countries lined

up in one of the strongest andmost diverse

line-ups seen, with a raft of previous

winners, series newcomers and one or two

legends of powerboating all vying for top

honours.

Roman Vandyshev, strongly backed up

by Andrei Panyushkin, was the standout

driver and guided the team to overall

victory, going quickest in qualifying, taking

third in the match race and winning both

sprint races. Second overall went to Team

USA’s veteran pairing with Team UAE in

third, Rashed Al Qamzi winning the match

race shoot-out over Australia’s Brock

Cohen.

EMMA-NELLIE

FOUR POINTS

FROM TITLE

DREAM

RUSSIA WIN NATIONS CUP

Emma-Nellie Ortendahl will head to the final

Grand Prix of the year in Sharjah in the UAE, 19-21

December, needing just four points to achieve her

dream of becoming Ladies Ski GP1 world champion.

The 18-year-old from Alvangen in Sweden has been

the class act and the standout rider of the 15 she has

faced this year and has hardly missed a beat all year,

starting six of eight races in P1, taking win-doubles

and GP titles in Otranto, Shanghai and Liuzhou and

finishing in second after a fourth and a win in Denia,

and nothing short of a cataclysmic meltdown can stop

her from laying the ghost of Sharjah, where she lost

out on the title last year, to rest.

Ortendahl is on top with 188 points, 46 clear of the

only challenger still left standing, defending champion

Jennifer Menard.

The Grands Prix in Shanghai and

Liuzhou proved definitive in Ski

GP1 with Jeremy Poret landing his

fourth world title in six years.

If anyone expected it to happen

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.”

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