Saturday, November 25: Oliver Koch Hansen, Benedicte Drange and Andrzej Wisniewski topped their respective Saturday morning’s free practice sessions for the final round of the 2023 UIM-ABP Aquabike Pro World Championship at Balige on Sumatra’s spectacular Lake Toba.

Oliver Koch Hansen clocked the fastest time of 1min 59.051sec during the opening practice session for the Ski Division GP1 runners. The Dane’s best lap was 0.638 seconds quicker than the time set by Axel Courtois. Mickael Poret was the best of the remaining 12 racers.

Benedicte Drange of Norway topped the free practice times in Ski Ladies GP1. She carded a best run of 2min 02.189sec to beat Jasmiin Ypraus to the early bragging rights. Virginie Moraes and Jessica Chavanne were a little off the pace of the top two in third and fourth.

Poland’s Andrzej Wisniewski narrowly got the better of Alejandro Molina Miranda after the first practice laps for the Runabout GP1 contenders. Johan Johansson, Zsolt Cseke and yesterday’s Samosir Cup winner Gyorgy Kasza rounded off the top five, with series leader François Medori down in 11th of the 13 racers who took to the water. Four skipped the session, three of whom had taken part in the previous day’s endurance racing for the Samosir Cup.

Seventeen riders were registered for the Runabout GP1 class, in addition to 14 in Ski Division GP1, 10 in Ski Ladies GP1 and five in Freestyle.

Lake Toba is part of the Toba Caldera UNESCO Global Geopark and is one of five UNESCO global geoparks in Indonesia. It is one of Indonesia’s Super Priority Tourism Destinations (DPSP).