Wednesday, 27 November: The Runabout GP1 and Ski GP1 UIM-ABP Aquabike World titles will go down to the wire and be decided in the final Grand Prix of the year in the United Arab Emirate of Abu Dhabi on 1 December.

The Aquabike riders will join teams and competitors from the F1H2O, Class 1 and Nations Cup World Championships to take part in the Emirati capital city’s International Water Sport’s Festival, running from the 28 November to the 6 December

What looked like being a straight run to a first UIM-ABP World title in Runabout for Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq dramatically turned on its head at the last event in Qatar when the Kuwaiti star,  who until that point was unbeaten in 2013, stopped in heat one and then disqualified from heat two.

France’s multiple World Champion Cyrille Lemoine took full advantage of his rivals nightmare weekend in Doha, winning both heats to catapult to the top of the standings and will line up in Abu Dhabi holding the whip-hand with a 10 point advantage over the Kuwaiti.

Still very much in the title hunt is fellow-Frenchman Jeremy Perez whose consistency this season with six top-four finishes puts him just three points behind Abdulrazzaq and 13 off the leader. For defending Champion Francois Medori the title is still mathematically possible but he will need the three ahead of him to suffer some sort of mechanical-meltdown.

The Ski title decider looks to be a straight fight between the 2013 UIM-ABP European Champion Tiago Sousa and Alberto Monti, just two points separating the Portuguese and Italian riders.

Three riders have topped the points so far this season; Spain’s Nacho Armillas led after the season-opener in Italy, but was dislodged by Monti in Italy, with Sousa taking his second Grand Prix title in Qatar to take over top spot.

With Armillas side-lined through injury in Qatar and unlikely to start in Abu Dhabi, the outsider for the title is Mickael Poret, but he needs to make up a 28-point deficit.

Slovenia's Pija Sumer is odds on favourite to lift the Ski Ladies title and is currently 33 points clear of Italy’s Marta Sorrentino.

The only rider in the Aquabike Championship who can relax in Abu Dhabi is the newly crowned Freestyle World Champion Rok Florjancic from Slovenia, who stripped his younger brother Nac, the defending Champion,  of the title in Doha after picking up his eighth consecutive heat win and fourth Grand Prix title of the year.

The first action for the riders is free practice on Saturday, 30 November at 10.00hrs [local] followed by official qualifying at 15.30hrs [local].