MEDIA INFORMATION
2025 UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship
FREE PRACTICE DOMINATES THE MORNING’S ON-WATER ACTION AT THE OLD PORT IN DOHA
Thursday, October 30: Competitors in the five racing disciplines carried out their free practice sessions for this weekend’s Old Doha Port Grand Prix of Qatar on Thursday morning.
Six GCC entrants from Qatar, the UAE and Saudi Arabia were first on to the water for Runabout GP2 Asian Continental Championship free practice after all riders and officials attended a packed briefing hosted by race director Marco Petrini. Multiple Runabout GP1 world champion Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq sat out the session.
Mahmoud Abumaali and Mohammed Abumaali represented the host nation alongside Saudi Arabia’s Daoud Kaloti and the Emirati duo of Khalid Al-Maazmi and Amer Hawair. Kaloti carded the quickest lap of 1min 43.425sec to narrowly top the practice times from Al-Maazmi and a distant Mohammed Abumaali.
Ten girls graced the final start list for the opening Ski Ladies GP1 free practice session. Estelle Poret wore the red vest and started out as the new leader of the championship from Benedicte Drange and Jasmiin Ypraus. The leading trio face competition from Jessica Chavanne, Virginie Morlaes, Emy Garcia, River Varner, Sofie Borgström, Naomi Benini and Janina Johansson this weekend.
Drange carded a target time of 1min 37.301sec and that time stood at the top of the standings for the Norwegian with title rivals Poret and Ypraus posting close times. Chavanne was fourth quickest in the session from Benini and Varner.
Nineteen or the original 23 entrants from 10 nations graced the start of free practice in Ski Division GP1. All the leading title protagonists were present except for fourth-placed Mickael Poret. The Frenchman suffered a freak accident while attempting a somersault on the podium in Sardinia two weeks ago and sustained an ankle injury.
Quinten Bossche stormed to the top of the rankings with a second lap of 1min 48.116sec to displace Kevin Reiterer. The Austrian then responded with a flier of 1min 38.694sec to move ahead again with Jéremy Poret and Ander-Hubert Lauri and Toshi O’Hara all running strongly.
Oliver Koch Hansen then posted a 1min 36.724sec run to top the timings at the session’s mid-point and the time stood for the Dane until the stint ended with Matteo Benini, Reiterer, Jéremy Poret and Alex Barret filling the top five positions in free practice. Benjamin Scharff was classified in eighth on a ski that he is sharing this weekend with Ski Ladies GP1 rookie Emy Garcia.
Twenty-one of the 23 riders lined up in Runabout GP1 with runaway championship leader François Medori looking to clinch a third world title and fend off rivals like Jéremy Perez and Pierre-François Savelli. Anthony Radetic and Khalifa Belselah sat out the session and Savelli failed to register a proper timed lap. Defending World Champion Samuel Johansson withdrew from the original entry list: the Swede had surgery last weekend.
Medori ran an early flier of 1min 41.103sec to top the times. That stood until Guillaume Hemain carded a run of 1min 39.733sec to move to the top of the rankings in the last four minutes. Khalid Al-Maazmi, Medori, Perez, Ruben Jimenez Riquelme and Qatar’s Khalil Jamal Al-Mohannadi were in close contention.
A dozen Freestylers – the largest number ever assembled for a round of the UIM-ABP World Championship – carried out their free practice at the end of the morning’s session. Italy’s Roberto Mariani will be hoping to stay clear of main rivals Rashid Al-Mulla and Massimo Accumolo.
Bader Al-Nama, Salem Al-Kubaisi, Abdulaziz Al-Abdulla, Bader Al-Abdullah and Abdulrahman Al-Sulaiti will be hoping for success for the host nation over the coming two days.
Thursday afternoon centres around the various qualifying and pole position sessions.
Ends