Thursday, 12 June: The UIM-ABP Aquabike Class Pro World Championship closed out the first half of the year in style with a mix of high octane racing, aerial insanity courtesy of the Freestylers and all matched with the high-energy sounds of the Aquabike Music Festival at Milan’s Idroscalo.

Organised by H2O Racing and AIM Group International the event delivered four days of great competition and entertainment. 'This was our first major venture to stage an event of this type, and overall we have received very positive feedback,' said H2O Racing’s marketing director, Raimondo di San Germano. 'The mix of sport and music is a perfect fit for Aquabikes. There are things we would like to develop and some things we will change. But this is the way forward.'

The night Slalom and Freestyle show followed by renowned French duo Klingande kicked off the event on Thursday, the racing building over the next two days and reaching fever pitch on the Sunday, with international DJs and Nicolo Cavalchini prowling and pumping out sounds on the stage in the evenings.

Gyorgy Kasza grabbed his second win of the year beating Jeremy Perez in a nail-biting deciding third leg to maintain the overall lead in the Runabout Slalom World Championship, with Jeremy Poret beating Alberto Monti in Ski to move into fourth place, Mickael Poret, who was knocked out by his brother in the semis still leading the points chase over Monti by one point on 41.

In the World Championship races, Perez reigned-supreme, stealing heat 1 from Francois Medori on the last corner of the final lap and crushing the opposition in heat two to complete the double – last year’s number one in the World Rankings now leading the World Championship.

In Ski Chris MacClugage and Jeremy Poret traded heat wins, Mac laying the ghost of Qatar’s loss to rest winning the GP of Italy title over his rival, with Portugal’s Tiago Sousa third overall. Poret leads the title race ahead of Sousa with MacClugage now back in contention in third.

Jennifer Menard stretched her lead in the title race with her second GP title of the year, trading wins with Estelle Poret, taking her maiden UIM-ABP tour win, with 16-year-old Swede Jonna Borgstorm in third.

In Freestyle Rok and Nac stole the show completing another Slovenian one-two, Rok remaining unbeaten in 10 Grand Prix, Italy’s Valerio Calderoni taking third.

After the summer break the World Championship heads to the World-acclaimed tourist destination Ibiza on 5-7 September.