MEDIA INFORMATION
2025 UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship
WORLD PARALLEL SLALOM TITLES FOR DRANGE, BOSSCHE AND AL-ABDULRAZZAQ; MOTO 1 FREESTYLE WIN FOR AL-MULLA
Friday, October 31: The second of the Freestyle Motos was held in tandem with the three heats in the UIM-ABP World Parallel Slalom Championship that made up an evening of thrilling entertainment at the Old Doha Port Grand Prix of Qatar on Friday.
The dozen Freestylers carried out their on-water acrobatic programmes in between the Ski Ladies GP1, Ski GP1 and Runabout GP1 heats with qualifying determined from Thursday afternoon’s pole position sessions.
Drange seals the deal in Ski Ladies GP1
Benedicte Drange, Naomi Benini, Jasmiin Ypraus and Emy Garcia made up the semi-final line-up for the Ski Ladies GP1 parallel slalom competition. Drange got the better of Benini in the opener and technical issues prevented Garcia from taking then start against Ypraus and the Estonian had a free passage into the final.
Benini faced Garcia in the third-place play-off. The Italian stormed to the win in the opener, Garcia levelled the score in heat two and Benini earned the bronze medal in heat three. Drange faced off with Ypraus in the Ladies’ final. Drange narrowly edged the opener and a mistake by defending champion Ypraus at a turn buoy in run two gifted victory and the title to the Norwegian.
Bossche strikes gold in Ski GP1
Quinten Bossche took on fellow Belgian Anthony Beernaut and Morgan Poret lined up against Toshi O’Hara in the Ski GP1 semi-final shoot-out. Bossche narrowly edged his duel with Beernaut and O’Hara reached the final in the second run-off.
Poret and Beernaut lined up for the third-place play-off and the Belgian edged the opener in a photo finish and Beernaut won heat two in another nip and tuck barn-stormer to take third place.
Bossche and O’Hara faced off for the gold medal. O’Hara ran wide on the home run and Bossche moved into a 1-0 lead and the Ostende racer sealed the title with a devastating run in the second heat.
Al-Abdulrazzaq sees off Kasza to win in Runabout GP1
Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq was unable to take on Khalifa Belselah because of the engine cylinder issues the Emirati suffered in his earlier Moto. The Kuwaiti ran solo and had a free passage into the final. György Kasza lined up against Pierre-François Savelli in the second of the Runabout GP1 semi-finals. They took a win apiece on the first two sprints and Kasza sealed his final place in the tie-breaker.
That set up a showdown between Al-Abdulrazzaq and Kasza in the final with Savelli assured of third place before he ran his play-off alone on the course. The Kuwaiti drew first blood in heat one but he ran wide on heat two, slowed and the Hungarian drew level. But a fierce ‘Razzaq’ attack in heat three earned the Kuwaiti the world parallel slalom title.
Freestyle Moto 1 victory for Rashid Al-Mulla
Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla had the advantage of going last in the evening’s timetable behind Italian rivals Massimo Accumolo and series leader Roberto Mariani. The other riders entertained the crowd between the different slalom run-off heats.
Qatar’s Bader Al-Nama impressive the panel of five judges and edged into the early lead by scoring 92 points for his night-time programme of somersaults and spins. Fellow countryman Salem Al-Kubaisi earned 63 points for his on-water programme but Abdulrahman Al-Sulaiti took a tumble, returned to the pontoon and restarted his set of spins and back-flips to then jump into the lead with 118 points.
David Dzhologua was towed off the course after technical issues at the start of his programme but still scored 99 points with a minute of his stint still to run. He earned 19 points for crowd entertainment alone. Qatar’s Bader Al-Abdullah rode through the pain barrier to take the lead with 181 points at the halfway point and that was sufficient to claim third place at the end of the session.
Former French amateur champion Steven Royer opened up with a 720° spin and a back flip and continued with a back-flip combination and finished with a couple of 360s to earn 134 points from the judges. Rome-based Accumolo started his programme strongly with transitions in to back flips and 180s and completed an action-packed schedule with a fountain to amass 178 points.
Defending European champion Mariani was the penultimate racer into the cauldron of competition. He started with a series of back flips, barrel rolls and spins and then followed up with 360s, 180s, spins, throws and a fountain to earn 226 points and the lead with just Al-Mulla to go.
The Emirati delivered a stunning array of opening spins, somersaults and flips and continued with a breathtaking array of high back flips and spins, much to the delight of the sizeable crowd. He earned 240 points to take the Moto 1 win from Mariani and Al-Abdullah and close the gap on Mariani to seven points in the World Championship.
The third Runabout GP2 Asian Continental Championship Moto is first on the agenda on Saturday afternoon and precedes the final Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski GP1 Motos that will decide the outcome of the respective championships.
Runabout GP1 and Freestyle contenders then take to the water for their second Motos that will draw a curtain on the season’s UIM-ABP Aquabike Circuit Pro World Championship.
Ends