Thursday, 15 September: The battles for the honour of being crowned a UIM-ABP Aquabike World Champion will take place on the waters of the Mediterranean sea starting from tomorrow when the championship returns to Olbia for the fourth edition of Regione Sardegna-Grand Prix of Italy on 16-18 September for the title showdown deciders.

 

A close battle is anticipated in Runabout GP1 with a bunch of 6 riders separated by 16 points: Marcus Jorgensen on top with 50 points followed by the 6 times World Champion Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq and the European Champion Samuel Johansson tied on 40 points followed by Frenchman Francois Medori and the defending World Champion Jeremy Perez looking to confirm his title.

 

It is a mouth-watering prospect with Jorgensen looking for his first world title at the fourth time of asking, Champion from Kuwait, Yousef Al Abdulrazzaq  going for a seventh and the Swedish Jorgensen, after the title in the European Championship, looking to double this years’s top podium. 

 

The World Champion in Ski Division GP1 will be a complete surprise coming out from this Grand Prix.

 

With defending Champion and Points Leader Nacho Armillas and the second in the standing Usa’s Dustin Motzouris both withdrawn from the race due to injuries, the title is on grabs and all the riders on the entry list could have the chance to be the new world champion.

 

We find on top a French couple, Axel Courtois with 54 points followed by Valentin Dardillat, 2 points less, with their fellow countryman Morgan Poret and Denmark’s Oliver Koch Hansen tied on 44 points. The European Champion Anthony Beernaut, Sweden’s Daniel Svae Andersen and Hungary’s Barnabas Szabo follow them in the hunt for the title. 

 

A four-way fight for the title is on in Ski Ladies with Estonia’s Jasmiin Ypraus enjoying a stellar season so far, taking 2 Grand Prix wins in the European and winning Grand Prix title in Ibiza to lead by 5 points from France’s Jessica Chavanne.  Latvia’s Krista Uzare sits in third spot with the 2021 World Champion Jonna Borgstrom looking for to defend her title. 

 

In Ski Division GP2 and GP3 Estonia’s Mattias Reinaas looks to be on track to confirm the double world title which he won last year.

 

In Ski Gp2 with only 3 points advantage over Portugal’s Goncalo Oliviera Rodrigues and 6 over the italian Andrea Guidi, who is hoping to give the expected partisan home crowd something to cheer about, the battle for the podium will be tough and also in Ski GP3 the 5 points advantage over Rodrigues and 6 over Hungary’s Csongor Jaszai are not enough to be safe.

 

Mattias Siimann was the rising star in Olbia last year and will be out to defend both his Runabout GP2 and GP4 titles but the Estonian will face the competition, among the others, from Linus Linberg in GP2 and Petr Dryjak in Runabout GP4 both of them only one point away from the defending Champion.

 

One point splits the top two in Runabout GP4 Ladies with the European Champion Nikola Dryjakova leading the standings from Italy’s Naomi Benini with defending champion France’s Clara Muchembled behind them.

 

Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashed Al Mulla is the red hot favourite to lift the Freestyle title also this year dominating with a perfect score card and leads from his closest rival Italy’s Roberto Mariani with Massimo Accumulo, Alberto Camerlengo and Paolo Nunes set to continue their aerial scrap for the remaining podium place.

 

Qualifying and all Motos will be streamed live on aquabike.net.