23 / 40
or ‘jet ski’ aficionados
and race fans around
the world, as well as
the 140 riders from
26
countries
who
signed up, the only
place to be for the
first two weekends in
June was the stunning
region of Puglia in
Italy.
The opening rounds of the UIM-ABP Aquabike
World Championship in Porto Cesareo and Vieste
served up a feast of vintage racing, drama, incident,
tantrums and tumbles and set up a season to savour.
In runabout GP1 the anticipated three-way slug
fest between defending champion Yousef Al
Abdulrazzaq, James Bushell and Lars Akerblom
did not disappoint and set the tone for the months
ahead, but all were upstaged at the opener by one
drive from the back of the field to the front by
Hungarian Gyorgy Kasza.
The main talking point in the pits amongst the
Ski riders from the word go was the arrival on the
scene of the new Kawasaki, the view of Norwegian
rider Stian Schjetlein was that “right now it is a
development non-Kawasaki riders can manage.”
On the water the talking points were many and
mainly about a trio of Porets who locked out the top
step of the podiums, Estelle enjoying a stellar two
events winning both GP titles in the Ladies division,
with elder brother and defending champion Jeremy
taking one, oldest brother Mickael the other.
Quinten Bossche marked his debut in the
championship in style and was immediately touted,
by some, as a future champion, picking up two moto
wins a pole position, a DSQ robbing him of a maiden
GP title.
In the frantic world of Freestyle there were two
fights going on; one for the top step of the podium
between Slovenia’s aerial aces Rok and Nac
Florjancic who traded the titles and the other for
the third step between Italian’s Roberto Mariani
and Alberto Camerlengo and Czech Jaroslav Tirner,
Mariani winning that battle.
Two tight and technical circuits, beach starts at
both, great crowds and fabulous venues ensured a
perfect stat to the year.
The 23rd season of the championship sanctioned by
the sports’ governing body theUnion Internationale
Motonautique (UIM), with Aquabike Promotion
(ABP) embarking on its seventh season at the
helm, kick-started with three days of intense
competition at the Grand Prix of Italy in Porto
Cesareo with the opening round of the UIM-ABP
World Championship for Runabout GP1 and Ski
GP1 and Freestyle and the World Championship
for Runabout GP2 & 4 and Ski GP2 & 3.
In Runabout GP1 Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq kick
started his title defence in style but left it late before
hitting the front to take victory in the openingMoto.
AQUABIKE BONANZA
KICK-STARTS 2017
AND SETS UP
SEASON TO SAVOUR
AQUABIKE
F
23