*Perez and MacClugage quickest in respective categories in qualifying
** Impressive 7th and 9th overall for title rivals Jennifer Menard and Estelle Poret
Friday, 3 October, LIUZHOU (China): Fifty four riders from 13 countries will line up on the River Liu in Liuzhou for the final two races of the season at the Grand Prix of China on Saturday, with a clutch of French riders looking to complete a clean sweep of World titles in Runabout, Ski and Ski Ladies.
Teddy Pons, winner last time out in Ibiza and the Championship leader in Runabout, heads into the final races of the year with a seven point advantage over countryman Jeremy Perez in what is effectively a winner takes all show down.
But it is Perez who has the upper hand for race 1 and will start from pole position after an impressive qualifying session, outpacing his title rival in Q1 and Q2 and the only rider to get under 1:30 seconds with a best time of 1:29.58seconds, over two seconds quicker than Pons.
If the French are to complete a clean sweep of the World Championship podium Cyrille Lemoine will need to find the form that has deserted him since winning the season-opener in Doha and move ahead of Qatar’s Mohammed Al Heidus who, mathematically, could provide an upset in the title race should the two main protagonists falter completely and fail to post points!, but also hold off Sweden’s Lars Akerblom who sits just two points behind him.
But Al Heidus showed why he is currently third in the overall standings going third quickest, 2.45 seconds off the pole sitter with Akerblom fourth and Lemoine with it all to do down in eighth place.
In Ski, Jeremy Poret knows that all he has to do is shadow his only title rival Chris MacClugage in both races to regain the crown he last held in 2012, but will want to end MacClugage’s three race winning streak and take the title in style. MacClugage knows that all he can do is pile the pressure on Poret from the front by winning both and leave the rest to chance!
A tight qualifying session saw the two trade times, Poret going quickest in Q1 but MacClugage hitting back to grab the all-important pole by just over a second, posting the fastest time in Q2, 1:26.83 seconds, with Alexandre Barret third quickest.
The Ladies title race is a straight fight between Jennifer Menard and Estelle Poret; Menard has a 19 point advantage winning titles over her younger rival in Qatar and Italy, but both being ousted by European Champion Sandra Fernandez Rodriguez in Ibiza, who may well be crucial to the outcome in the title race should she take points away from either.
But in qualifying both Menard and Poret were very impressive, outpacing 14 of their male counterparts to make it through to Q2 and then post the 7th and 9th best times, Menard posting 1:37.30 seconds, Poret well off the pace due to technical problems, with Fernandez Rodriguez 12th quickest.
With six wins out of six and three GP titles this season and unbeaten in 11 GP outings, Rok Florjancic is one performance away from retaining his UIM-ABP crown, his only real challenge likely to come from younger brother Nac.
Ahead of tomorrow’s heats ‘the Rok’ was again majestic scoring 91 out of a possible 100 for variety, style and quantity of tricks with Nac just five points shy of his brother and ahead of Roberto Mariani and Li Chaofan.
Local interest will focus on Team China’s 11 rider entry; Wu Ronghua, who was the pick of the local entry last year finishing in seventh leads out a group of five in Runabout, Liu He and Wang Xiaowei take on the World’s best in Ski, Yue Nixin heading up a trio in Ski Ladies with Li Chaofan the solitary representative in Freestyle – Wu Ronghua, Liu He and Li Qianqian grabbing the local bragging rights in qualifying.
For full set of results go to aquabike.net.