Erstellt: 23.04.14, 19:25 Betreff: Re: UIM AQUABIKE WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP 2014druckenweiterempfehlen
AQUABIKE MUSIC FESTIVAL
AQUABIKES AND MUSIC FESTIVAL READY TO ROCK MILAN
*sport + music + parties = four days of non-stop entertainment
Wednesday, 23 April: From the 5-8 June the world of sport and music will collide when the world’s best Aquabike riders team-up with a host of internationally renowned musicians and up-and-coming DJs to share centre stage in Milan when the city that is widely regarded as a global capital for design, fashion, architecture and sport hosts round 2 of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro World Championship and the first ever Aquabike Music Festival.
Organised by H2O Racing and AIM Group International, the four days of spectacular racing, night shows and entertainment in one of the world’s most iconic cities will take place at Idroscalo, an artificial lake originally built as a seaplane airport in 1930 and now a renowned venue for hosting social and sporting events and music festivals with bars and nightclubs.
A series of spectacular night shows managed by Nicolo Cavalchini kicks off on Thursday [5 June] when renowned French duo Klingande and a host of internationally acclaimed DJs ramp up the volume during the Slalom World Championship and Freestyle show.
On Friday night Christian Vlad presents Dance Corner Night along with Simon De Jano, Andrea Pellizzari, Bottai and Alex Guesta, with Nicolo Cavalchini and his band and Simon De Jano leading the proceedings for the annual Summer Opening Ceremony of the Idroscalo on Saturday night.
The daytime action on the water for Runabout and Ski GP1 and Freestyle starts with free practice and qualifying on Friday, free practice and Race 1 on Saturday with a final free practice and Race 2 on Sunday and followed by the official podium presentations.
For further information about the Aquabike Music Festival visit: amfevent.com
Friday, 23 May: With still two weeks to go the eagerly anticipated Grand Prix of Italy and the Aquabike Music Festival (AMF) in Milan on 5-8 June, promoter Aquabike Promotion has revealed a massive interest and record entry.
With 82 riders from 17 countries already registered it means that starting places in all categories, Runabout and Ski GP1 and Freestyle are at a premium and will be hotly contested, with the need for pre-qualifying in Runabout and Ski to determine those that will go through to compete for World Championship and World Ranking points and GP title.
The entry highlights the rise and rise and the growing stature of the UIM-ABP tour, a view backed Portugal’s Ski GP1 ace Tiago Sousa. 'The level of entry in all the categories is very high. We have many Champions, the best riders in the World and the competition is an incredible standard,' he said. 'The event weekends are very very good. There is no better Championship, no better competition. This is the best in the World.'
Highlighting the ‘best in the world’ tag is the splattering of World Champions - not to mention European and National Champions - across the categories that will line up in Milan; in Runabout Cyrille Lemoine, Francois Medori, Mattia Fracasso, Teddy Pons, in Ski Mickael and Jeremy Poret, Alberto Monti, Ludo Caumont and in Freestyle the Florjancic brothers Rok and Nac and Valerio Calderoni.
TRIPLE WORLD CHAMPION JULIE BULTEAU TO START IN MILAN
Tuesday, 27 May: Julie Bulteau will make a welcome return to the UIM-ABP tour when she lines up in Ski GP1 for the Grand Prix of Italy in Milan on 5-8 June.
The triple World Champion will make her first and possibly only appearance of the year following a 20 month break from the Championship after taking time out to have her first baby with Jeremy Poret, Lucas.
The 26-year-old superstar from St Maximin in France made her racing debut at 17 and went on to become a dominant force in the sport between 2007-2012 winning the European Championship in 2007 and 2008.
The first of her three World titles came in 2009 and followed up with an unbeaten run in 2010, then winning six races and three Grand Prix titles out of four to successfully defend her title again in 2011. But she missed out on a possible fourth consecutive crown after opting to miss the final Grand Prix of the year in China to race in the USA, the 2012 title going to Italy’s Stefania Balzer.
Competing alongside the men in a field of an anticipated 30 riders, the fiercely competitive Bulteau will line up alongside her immediate rivals for points and the GP title, Championship leader Jennifer Menard, Estelle Poret, Marta Sorrentino and newcomer, Jonna Borgstrom.
WINS FOR ESTELLE AND JEREMY PORET IN SKI AS PEREZ WINS THRILLER IN RUNABOUT
*ROK TOPS THE CHARTS AGAIN
Saturday, 7 June, MILAN (Italy):
Estelle Poret produced a simply stunning performance in race 1 of Ski GP1 at the Grand Prix of Italy to take her first win on the UIM-ABP tour with a start-to-finish victory over pole-sitter Jennifer Menard, with Swedish youngster Emma Ortendahl finishing third on her debut.
The win, described by the young 18-year-old from Lyon as the ‘best day of her life’ kicked off an afternoon of celebrations inside the Poret family camp, when her success and maiden victory was followed by an equally impressive ride by her second eldest brother, Jeremy, who came from behind to beat his arch-rival, America’s Chris MacClugage and take his third straight win of the year, with Portugal’s Tiago Sousa in third.
The Ski Ladies race kicked-off an afternoon of spectacular racing with Estelle Poret grabbing the advantage from the green flag to jump yesterday’s top qualifier Jennifer Menard and opening up a massive five second lead by the end of lap 1.
But Menard dug deep and gave chase and gradually closed in on the leader with the split down to 2.5 seconds on lap five of ten, but Poret absorbed the pressure and responded and pushed again to increase the gap and go on to close out the race to win by 4.78 seconds. “It is the best day of my life to get my first win on this tour,' said Estelle. 'The event has been great so far and to win against such good riders makes it even better.'
Behind the front runners Julie Bulteau fought it out with 15-year-old Emma Ortendahl, but the combination of a miss-firing engine and fatigue took its toll, with the Swedish youngster moving into third place on lap 8 to round off an impressive debut, her countrywoman Jonna Borgstrom, also making her debut and just 16, finishing in fifth.
The men’s heat produced another titanic battle between Poret and MacClugage, the American making his customary electrifying start to get ahead of pole-sitter Poret, with Tiago Sousa, Alberto Monti and Nacho Armillas taking up the chase.
MacClugage held firm but could not widen the gap to more than two seconds, when on lap 7 Poret started to make his move on the leader, closing in and then passing him on lap 8, going on to take his third win of the year and extend his Championship lead, finishing nine seconds clear of MacClugage. “After that start I knew I would have to play a waiting game and chose the right moment to attack and when it came I took it,' Poret said. 'Mac is a great racer but I saw him make a small mistake and was able to pass. The conditions were very tough but it really suited my new Kawasaki and to win on my first race with it is great. And I am also so proud of my little sister, what a great win for her.”
The American was as gracious as ever in defeat after following the Frenchman home again. “It was a great race but I made a stupid mistake on the alternate course and Jeremy knew it and took full advantage,' he said. 'The conditions were unbelievable; it was like driving on cobblestones and at times over massive speed bumps. It was hard to get a good feel but the ski ran really well. I have to say the marshalls’ out on the course were incredible, controlling so many bikes and making it easy for us to get past back markers. They did a fantastic job.'
Sousa was comfortable in third for all of the ten laps, behind him Monti and Armillas traded places, the Spaniard moving into third place on lap 3 Italy’s Monti grabbing it back on the penultimate lap, with Croatia’s Tomaz Kete and Norway’s Stian Schjetlein fighting to complete the top six, Kete winning that fight.
The afternoon’s Blue Riband event, Runabout GP1 was full of drama and produced an extraordinary and spectacular ending to the days racing, with the early race leaders Lorenzo Benaglia and Thamer Al-Darwish both hitting trouble, then Francois Medori losing the lead and the race on the penultimate turn of the final lap after being passed by Jeremy Perez.
Benaglia stormed to the front from the start and for the first three laps was in complete control and the thousands of spectators started to think of an Italian win on home water, then on lap 4 a problem with the compressor forced him to stop and carry out on-water repairs, eventually fixing the problem but dropping down to finish in 21st place.
Al-Darwish took over at the front and led until lap 10 when he was hit from the side and ran off the circuit, recovering to finish in tenth, the lead changing for the third time as France’s Francois Medori hit the front on lap 11.
The Frenchman led for the next four laps but was being chased down by his hard-charging countryman Jeremy Perez, who looked to have too much to do when he was forced to take the penalty buoy at the end of the penultimate lap.
But Perez had other ideas and drove like a man possessed closing in on Medori and snatching the win with the chequered flag just metres away. “I really didn’t think I could do it after taking the penalty. I thought it was too much,' said an exhausted Perez. “I just gave it everything I had left and then I saw him make a small mistake and just pushed one last time and came out of the alternate course in front. It was a really tough race, very hard conditions, but a great one to win.'
Qatar’s Mohamed Al-Heidus made up for the team’s disappointment of seeing Al-Darwish literally knocked off the lead and produced a battling performance to take third place from pole-sitter Teddy Pons, with Spain’s Jordi Tomas Jimenez moving up from twelfth to finish in fifth ahead of Poland’s Andrezj Wisniweski.
In Freestyle the Rok Florjancic show rolled on and up and over and backwards, and once again the Slovenian was in a class of his own, topping the points for variety, style and quantity and awarded 94 out of a maximum 100, with brother Nac in second and Italy’s Valerio Calderoni in third.
IBIZA GEARING UP FOR POWERBOAT AND AQUABIKE TRIPLE HEADER
Monday, 30 June: The Spanish Island of Ibiza is gearing up for the Mediterranean Grand Prix, 5-7 September, a spectacular sporting triple header with the opening rounds of the UIM Class 1 and V1 World Powerboat Championships and round 3 of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro World Championship.
The countdown to the event officially started at a press conference held at the new Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza with Daniel Gomez Korf, CEO and founder of the Ibiza World Championship (IWC), stating that, “This is a unique opportunity that will put Ibiza at the heart of the global scene of extreme water sports and is for sure an unprecedented event that will help to further promote tourism on the island.”
The three days of non-stop action will see powerboats and Aquabikes rubbing shoulders and sharing centre stage with the Class 1 and V1 paddock in the heart of town at Marina Ibiza, where the evening Freestyle and Slalom events will also take place, with the Aquabike pits and race circuit located at Platja D’en Bossa in front the of Ushuaia Ibiza Beach Hotel and Hard Rock Hotel Ibiza.
The revised World Championship events format ‘Classone’ will see the Class 1 Catamarans and V1 Monohulls running together on a simple mirror-image circuit with separate sets of turn-buoys, Class 1 turning on the inside marks, V1 the outside and a spectacular rolling start with all boats running line-a-breast.
The Class 1 line-up includes the World’s top three, Victory, Zabo-Isiklar, LFF10 and the European Champions LFF8, Team Abu Dhabi, DAC Racing and D’Alessio /SCAM, with V1 teams Searex from Germany, RG87 and Tommy Racing from Italy, Chaudron from Malta and Silverline from the UK.
For round 3 of the Aquabike World Championship, promoter H2O Racing is anticipating another mammoth entry to match the turnout for round 2 in Milan, which saw for the first time the maximum entry in both Runabout and Ski with 25 and 30 riders lining up, as well as seven in Ski Ladies and five in Freestyle.
Photo (from right to left): Marcos Marí, Marina Ibiza CEO; Lavinia Cavallero, Vice President of H20 Racing; Mikel Martínez Astelarra, CEO and founder of the Ibiza World Championship (IWC); Daniel Gómez Korf, CEO and founder of the Ibiza World Championship (IWC); Vicent Serra Ferrer, President of the Consell Insular d’Eivissa; José Miguel Martínez Castejón, Real Spanish Federation of Motorboats President; Carmen Ferrer, Consellera of Turisme d’Eivissa and Jesús Sobrino, Palladium Hotel Group Vice Director.
Monday, 11 August: Defending World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq has confirmed he will return to racing at the Mediterranean Grand Prix in Ibiza, 5-7 September, after being forced to miss round round 2 in Italy through injury.
The 34-year-old Runabout star from Kuwait City will be looking to get his title defence back on track, but despite his blistering turn of pace faces an uphill battle after a disastrous outing at the season-opener in Qatar in March where he failed to post any points.
That, plus the no-show in Italy, means that the Champion is staring down a 61 points deficit to France’s Jeremy Perez who leads the title race from countryman Teddy Pons and Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus. “I am now fully fit and looking forward to racing in Ibiza,” he said. “It is a big ask but if I am going to put myself back in the race to defend my title I have to win both heats and hope that those at the top have problems.”
Qatar has proved to be Abdulrazzaq’s bogey venue; he failed to post points on his UIM-ABP tour debut in 2011, broke in heat 2 in 2012, broke again and was then black-flagged in 2013 to lose the lead in the title race, albeit momentarily, repeating the breakdown and black-flag scenario but in reverse this year.
WORLD AQUABIKE STARS ALL SET TO TURN ON THE STYLE IN IBIZA
Monday, 1 September: French riders Jeremy Perez, Jeremy Poret and Jennifer Menard will line-up in Ibiza [5-7 September] looking to defend and build on their Championship leads in their respective categories Runabout GP1 and Ski GP1, when an expected 65-competitors from 15 countries take to the waters off Playa d’en Bossa for the Mediterranean Grand Prix, round 3 of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro World Championship.
In the spectacular Freestyle category the aerial insanity and breathtaking array of tricks will continue with the seemingly invincible defending World Champion Rok Florjancic looking to extend his remarkable unbeaten run on the UIM-ABP tour since his debut in 2011, winning 20 times to claim 10 Grand Prix titles.
The biggest threat that the 29-year-old from Maribor in Slovenia faces will come from his younger brother Nac who won the World title in 2012 and sits in second spot 20 points behind him, with the fight for the third step of the podium between Italians Valerio Calderoni and Roberto Mariani.
With the standard set and the bar raised to new heights following two outstanding events in Qatar and Italy, the action is set to ratchet-up another gear as we head into the second half of the season.
Jeremy Perez is the inform rider in Runabout and leads the World Championship by a slender three points from fellow-Frenchman Teddy Pons with Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus leading the Middle East challenge in third, a further eight points adrift on 50.
Perez, 27, from Lambesc in France topped the Runabout World Rankings at the end of last year and is enjoying his best season on the UIM-ABP tour and having a stellar run. He recovered from a shaky start in Qatar finishing 12th overall but hit back in Italy to complete a brilliant win-double to take his first GP title and the lead in the race for the World title. In July he clinched the European title with two heat wins out of three in Mirandela, Portugal and maintains his number one spot in the World Rankings.
Pons is another enjoying a strong season, winning heat 2 in Qatar to take second overall and grabbing third overall last time out in Italy, whilst Marina4 teammates Cyrille Lemoine and Mattia Fracasso in fourth and fifth places will be hoping that the technical issues that have hindered their title challenges have been resolved, Lemoine especially after winning heat 1 and the title in Qatar.
Returning to the tour after a simply disastrous no points tally in the season-opener and missing the last event through injury is Kuwait’s defending World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq who has to win both heats in Ibiza if he is to kick-start his title defence.
In Ski the title race looks to be between Jeremy Poret, Portugal’s Tiago Sousa and America’s Chris MacClugage. What is certain is that a new Champion will be crowned at the end of the year following the withdrawal from the series through injury that requires surgery of defending Champion Mickael Poret.
The Poret-MacClugage fight is turning into an epic contest; two-time World Champion Poret leads the Championship standings with a 91 to 65 points advantage over multiple Champion MacClugage in third, has three heat wins to his rivals one but they share Grand Prix honours winning one a piece, Poret climbing the top step in Qatar MacClugage in Milan.
But Sousa, the world number two and European Champion in second spot on 72 points may well hold the key, is a genuine title threat and is quick and super consistent finishing second overall in Qatar and third in Milan. And if Poret and MacClugage get caught up in their personal battle Sousa could well deliver a knockout punch and steal through to grab the advantage.
Double Grand Prix and triple heat winner Jennifer Menard is the pick of the group in Ski Ladies and heads up the points standings from Estelle Poret who grabbed her first heat win on the tour in Italy, with Marta Sorrentino in third. All three will face a strong challenge from Spain’s Sandra Fernandez Rodriquez, the 2014 European Champion.
Additional Spanish interest will focus on Runabout tour regular Jordi Tomas Jimenez lying in 19th place after picking up 13 points finishing fourth in heat 1 in Italy, and debutants Roberto Alexander Al Pino, Alejandro Molina Miranda and Toni Vingut Riggal.
In Ski, and still on the comeback trail after suffering multiple back injuries following a horror crash in an invitation event in China in October last year, is 21-year-old Nacho Armillas.
The Besalu resident will be hoping to regain the form that took him to his first heat and Grand Prix win in China and the world number two spot in 2012. A frustrating 2014 saw him lose a podium finish in Qatar after being DQ’d when his Ski failed post-race scrutineering, break in heat 2 after a fifth in heat 1 in Italy. He is joined by countrymen Kevin Moreno Rojo, Fede Fuster, Carlos Vela Sanandres and Lucas Oliver Bulto.
First practice kicks off at 10.00hrs [local] on Friday, followed by pre-qualifying in Runabout at 14.00hrs with official qualifying in all categories starting at 16.15hrs. Heats 1 and 2 take place at 16.15hrs on Saturday and Sunday.
For further Championship information and timings visit; aquabike.net
For event information visit; ibizaworldchampionship.com
Friday, 5 September, IBIZA: Two contrasting but tightly contested qualifying sessions saw France’s Jeremy Perez and America’s Chris MacClugage grab the advantage over their rivals and will start heat 1 of the Mediterranean Grand Prix from Pole Position.
Runabout’s Championship leader Perez carried the form that gave him the win-double and GP title in Italy into the first 15 minute session, topping the time sheets in practice and easing through Q1 in third place behind Teddy Pons and Cyrille Lemoine to set himself up to go for the Pole in Q2.
The 27-year-old from Lambesc then immediately seized the advantage with a time of 1:14.72s on his first flying lap around the 22-pin, 1.7km circuit off Playa D’en Bossa to grab his first Pole of the season.
Pons, who sits in second place in the points table just three behind Perez, topped the time sheets in Q1 but was unable to find the pace to steal past his countryman, missing out by just three-tenths of a second. Italy’s Mattia Fracasso improved his performance in the final session to go third quickest, but was three seconds adrift of the top two.
World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq, back on the tour after missing the last race through injury, first had to get through pre-qualifying to reduce the overall number of riders to 25, which he did comfortably, but was missing the pace of his number one race bike managing fourth in both Q1 and Q2.
Ski qualifying produced yet another intriguing duel between MacClugage and Jeremy Poret, the two rivals trading times and swapping places throughout, the American getting the upper hand in the first session ahead of Portugal’s Tiago Sousa, with Poret in third.
In the final ten minute session, the two went head-to-head from the green flag; Poret led MacClugage round for the first flying lap but it was the American who grabbed the provisional pole with a time of 1:22.08s. Poret then hit back to go quicker posting his best, 1:20.99 which looked to be enough, but the determined MacClugage then stole the Pole on his last run as the clock counted down, with a 1:20.18.
Nacho Armillas was by far the strongest of the Spanish riders, matching his best qualifying off the year going third fastest ahead of an impressive outing by Morgan Poret with Sousa in fifth.
Estelle Poret was the best of the Ladies finishing in 15th spot out of a starting line-up of 24, ahead of Championship leader Jennifer Menard, with Marta Sorrerntino in 21st spot ahead of Spain’s Sandra Fernandez.
Sunday, 7 September, IBIZA: Teddy Pons and Chris MacClugage completed the perfect weekend to win Mediterranean Grand Prix titles in their respective categories after taking their second heat wins, with the Ladies title going to Spain’s Sandra Fernandez and the Freestyle to Rok Florjancic.
It was a second impressive performance by Pons who first had to fend off an early challenge from Sweden’s Lars Sebastian Akerblom and then from lap 8 of 17 his main Championship rival, Jeremy Perez.
Despite the constant pressure from Perez, Pons held on to win by five seconds, today’s result moving him seven points clear in the Championship standings, with Akerblom unable to match and stay with the pace of the front two but coming home for his best result on the UIM-ABP tour in third and take third overall.
Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq and Francois Medori enjoyed their own personal tussle, Medori getting ahead on lap five, Abdulrazzaq getting fourth place back on lap 16, Alejandro Molina the first Spanish rider to take the chequered flag completing the top six.
In Ski it was another brilliant start and dominant performance by the American MacClugage whose second win of the weekend over arch-rival Jeremy Poret has moved him into second place and closed the gap in the Championship standings to 16 points.
MacClugage was able to control the race from the front, running out the winner by 11 seconds with Poret unable to respond and more focussed on having to fend off the attentions of Spain’s Nacho Armillas.
France’s Steven Loiodice was another to produce one of his best showings with a steady run in fourth finishing ahead of a spirited showing by Alberto Monti, moving up from 13th to fifth, Croatia’s Tomaz Kete completing the top six.
In Ski Ladies, Championship leader Jennifer Menard took the heat win over Fernandez and Sorrentino, but it was Fernandez who claimed the title thanks to her win in heat 1, with Rok Florjancic maintaining his perfect record and unbeaten in 11 Grand Prix, brother Nac taking second over Roberto Mariani.
Thursday, 18 September: World titles in all four categories in the UIM-ABP Class Pro Aquabike World Championship will be decided at the Grand Prix of China, 3-4 October, on the River Liu in Liuzhou, the final event of what has been an enthralling and entertaining season.
Whatever the result in Runabout a new Champion will emerge with defending Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq raising the white flag and missing the last event after a somewhat disastrous title defence. He failed to score points in Qatar missed round 2 in Italy through injury but salvaged some pride with a third and a fourth in Ibiza.
The race for the title is a two way fight between Teddy Pons and Jeremy Perez, Pons holding a slender seven point advantage over his countryman. Both have won heats and both have won GP titles this year and now go head to head in a winner takes all decider.
On paper and mathematically Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus can still win, but it will need Pons and Perez to suffer some sort of complete meltdown and fail to post points and Al Heidus to win both heats.
In Ski it is between the current leader Jeremy Poret and the man snapping at his heels Chris MacClugage. It is a fascinating scenario; Poret lifted the GP title in Qatar and has a 16 point cushion, but MacClugage is the man inform and in the ascendancy winning the last tree heats and two GPs, but Poret knows that he just has to finish second to his American rival in both heats to clinch his third World title.
With Tiago Sousa another absentee in China the door is open for veteran racer Alberto Monti to close out third place.
Points’ leader Jennifer Menard looks to be on course to win in Ski Ladies but still has to be wary of young Estelle Poret, but the winner in Spain Sandra Fernandez Rodriguez may well hold the key if she takes points away from either or both of the front runners.
If Rok Florjancic maintains his perfect record and wins heat 1 he is the Champion again, his only rival is brother Nac. What everyone would like to see from ‘the Rok’ is the perfect score of 100. He has come close posting 98.5 and the reality of doing it is well within his grasp.
Saturday, 4 October, LIUZHOU (China): France’s Teddy Pons swept to the UIM-ABP Runabout GP1 World title taking his third win of the year in race 1 of the Grand Prix of China, which saw his title rival and fellow Frenchman Jeremy Perez stop on lap 4.
Starting from pole it was Perez who made the better start to take lead with Pons in second place, but on lap 4 having opened up a five second lead his race and title hopes ended. Pons hit the front and was able to control the race and hold off the challenge of Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus, the two racing line astern to the chequered flag with Pons winning by the narrowest of margins.
Sweden’s Lars Akerblom equalled his best result of the year, moving up from fifth passing Qatar’s Thamer Al Darwish on lap 3 to finish third ahead of Poland’s Andrzej Wisniewski, with Mattia Fracasso cutting his way through the pack from ninth to finish fifth.
But following a post-race protest by Akerblom which was upheld by race officials, Qatar’s Al Heidus was disqualified for missing a turn buoy, moving the Swede up to second and giving Wisniewski his first top three finish on the UIM-ABP tour.
*Jennifer Menard wins to move to within a point of world title
Saturday, 4 October, LIUZHOU (China): Jeremy Poret is just four points away from winning a third Ski GP1 World title after a breath taking last corner win over arch rival Chris MacClugage in race 1 of the Grand Prix of China.
The result extends Poret’s Championship lead to 21 with just 25 available going into this afternoon’s final race of the season.
Poret conceded to pole sitter MacClugage from the start and trailed him for 10 laps, when a mistake by the American allowed him too close to within a couple of seconds, then snatching the win on the final corner of the last lap with MacClugage taking the penalty buoy.
Third place went to Spaniard Nacho Armillas.
In the race for the Ladies title Jennifer Menard’s fifth win of the season moves her to within a point of the World Championship after beating rival Estelle Poret, with Sandra Rodriguez Fernandez third.
FRANCE CELEBRATES WORLD CHAMPIONSHIP TREBLE AS THE ROK RETAINS HIS CROWN
Saturday, 4 October, LIUZHOU (China): Teddy Pons, Jeremy Poret and Jennifer Menard capped a near perfect weekend in Liuzhou for France, celebrating a famous World Championship hat-trick in Runabout, Ski and Ski Ladies at the Grand Prix of China.
Five years after winning his first World title in Liuzhou in 2009, Teddy Pons regained it in the same city after winning race 1 this morning, but unlike his Wold title winning compatriots was not able to celebrate the overall Grand Prix win, breaking down on lap 13 of race 2.
Race 2 honours went to Sweden’s Lars Akerblom, his first win on the UIM-ABP tour also giving him his first Grand Prix title finishing ahead of Francois Medori who took third overall, with Poland’s Andrzej Wisniewski taking his first overall podium finish in second place after finishing third in both races.
The newly crowned Ski World Champion Jeremy Poret signed off his season in the most emphatic manner, completing the race win double over his American rival Chris MacClugage to win his second Grand Prix of the year and reclaim the World title he last held in 2012.
Poret led from start-to-finish but was unable to shake off the persistent challenge from MacClugage, but held on to take the chequered flag, his fifth win of the year. Spain’s Nacho Armillas grabbed his second podium of the year finishing in third place in both races.
In Ski Ladies Jennifer Menard celebrated her first full season on the UIM-ABP tour rounding out her year with a sixth race win and third GP title to become World Champion for the first time, finishing ahead of Spain’s Sandra Fernandez Rodriguez and title rival and World runner-up Estelle Poret.
Going into the final heat of Freestyle just one question remained unanswered, could the World Champion Rok Florjancic produce the perfect routine and get the perfect score?
After watching both Roberto Mariani and then brother Nac produce two outstanding performances, scoring 84 and 95 points respectively, the 29-year-old from Maribor in Slovenia produced a near-perfect set of tricks, sealing his second consecutive World title with a score off 99 out of a 100.