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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