Saturday, November 25: The Grand Prix of Lake Toba-Indonesia hosted the stand-alone Parallel Slalom World Championship in a floodlit racing bonanza in Balige on Saturday evening.
Estonia’s Jasmiin Ypraus, Swiss racer Alec Enderli and Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq earned the titles of 2023 Parallel Slalom World Champions in their respective Ski Ladies GP1, Ski Division GP1 and Runabout GP1 heats. Heavy rain failed to hamper the evening’s entertainment.
The opening Moto in the Freestyle category also took place on Saturday evening to entertain the crowds lining the shores of Lake Toba. Roberto Mariani, Rashid Al-Mulla, Paulo Nuñes and Dubai-based Moroccan Yassine Fadli lined up individually in reverse order and delivered a spectacular array of barrel-rolls, back flips, spins, 360s, acrobatic combinations and somersaults in front of a panel of judges.
Al-Mulla and Mariani could hardly be separated and both the Emirati and the Italian scored 25 championship points, although Al-Mulla outscored his rival on quantity and style and Mariani was awarded extra points for variety. Nuñes and Fadli finished third and fourth.
Jessica Chavanne and Virginie Morales had been first on to the lake for the evening session, as the two Ski Ladies GP1 semi-finalists who qualified in third and first, took turns on each side of the course for a Parallel Slalom semi-final. Honours were shared in the two heats and Chavanne progressed to the final after a tie-break run. Jasmiin Ypraus and Sweden’s Sofie Borgström were next up and the Estonian won both runs to move into the final to face Chavanne.
Morales faced off with Borgström in the third-place play-off. She won the opening heat and Borgström narrowly edged run number two but Morlaes confirmed third place in the Parallel Slalom World Championship with a win in the tie-break.
The final took place after the opening Freestyle Moto and was held over the best of three heats. Ypraus opened with a win, Chavanne levelled but the Estonian prevailed in the tie-breaker to seal the world crown.
Frenchman Axel Courtois and Austrian racer Kevin Reiterer lined up first in the Ski Division GP1 shoot-out and shared the spoils in the first two runs. Courtois then prevailed in the tie-breaker and progressed to the final. Oliver Koch Hansen went head-to-head with Alec Enderli in heat two. The Swiss rider lost control in one of the heats but managed to squeeze through to face Courtois in the final.
Reiterer and Koch Hansen battled it out for third place and a mistake by the Austrian gifted third to his Danish rival with a two-zero win. The final was fought out over the best of five heats and Enderli managed to claim a 3-1 victory to seal the world crown from Courtois.
Next on to the water were four qualifiers from the Runabout GP1 category. Rasmus Koch Hansen had qualified fifth but replaced Jeremy Perez in the first heat against Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq. But the Kuwaiti’s bike was down on power and the Dane secured the opening heat win, only to lose out in the second one to his rejuvenated rival. Al-Abdulrazzaq then won heat three to push Koch Hansen into the third-place play-off.
Johan Johansson replaced François Medori in the second semi-final and lined up against Alejandro Molina Miranda but the Spaniard made it through to the final to face Al-Abdulrazzaq with back-to-back heat wins. Koch Hansen won both heats against Johansson to confirm third place and Al-Abdulrazzaq sealed the Runabout GP1 Parallel Slalom World Championship by beating Molina Miranda in both heats in the final.
The second of the Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski Division GP1 Motos take place from 10.30hrs (local time) on Sunday morning and precede free practice for the Runabout GP1 and Freestyle riders.