Thursday, September 19: Aquabike Promotion and the FPM have received numerous additional entries for the final round of this season’s UIM-ABP European Continental Aquabike Championship. Nearly 100 names have now been received for next weekend’s Grand Prix of Mira in Portugal, which will go ahead as scheduled despite forest fires that have been raging in the area recently.
Dry conditions have seen the area hit by bush fires in recent days but the vicinity of the actual aquabike racing is not affected and event officials have assured competitors that the venue is completely safe. Nevertheless, staff at Aquabike Promotion send their best wishes and solidarity to anyone who has been directly affected by the fires.
The French duo of Valentin Dardillat and Morgan Poret are late additions to the list of riders set to battle for honours in the Ski Division GP1 category. Poret currently leads Dardillat by two points in the title race and the duo will go head-go-head with the likes of Poret’s brother Mickael, Alex Courtois and Oliver Koch Hansen bolstering the category. Additional names on the list include Thomas Bento, Dan Hoeke and Matteo Benini.
Norway’s Benedicte Drange, French girl Virginie Morlaes and Portugal’s Joana Graça were the original three girls to grace the Ski Ladies GP1 list, but they have now been joined by Finland’s Siiri Salonen, Sofie Borgström of Sweden and Italy’s Naomi Benini. Joining Manuel Leite in Ski GP2 are fellow Portuguese riders Matteo Valente and Gonçalo Rodrigues and Dan Hoeke.
Joining the Belgian trio of Yoni Hamelin, Loris Lambert and Rémy Marlier in Ski GP3 is fellow countryman Ludovic Bral, while Bram Hoeke is also a late entrant alongside the local trio of Diogo Barbosa, Manuel Leite and Martim Marques. Eddy Godon of France is a late addition to the Ski GP4 ranks.
France’s Maxime Arthebise and Pelle Stenborg of Sweden had looked set for a duel for supremacy in the Junior GP3.3 section but they will now be joined in Portugal by the Montenegrin pairing of Via and Mio Petrovic.
While there are no additions to the 13-strong Runabout GP1 field, Runabout GP2 series leader Pierre-François Savelli, Petr Dryjak, Adrian Herias, Justin Patzner, Linus Lindberg and Tom Claerhout will compete alongside Portugal’s Fábio Costa and Germany’s Robin Laforge in an eight-strong field.
Petr Dryjak and Alejandro Prats Palau are the leading Runabout GP4 contenders with Spain’s Ivan Pantoja Fernandez and late Portuguese entrant Rui Fernandes also chasing points. Montenegrin Volia Dzikovich is a new addition to the Runabout Ladies GP4 contingent alongside series leader Cyrielle Bramm, Ilaria Vanni, Astra Gurkšnyte, Marketa Hollerova and Nikola Dryjakova.
Lithuania’s Grantas Gurkšnys leads the Runabout GP4 Juniors category and lines up alongside Erikas Butkas and Aurora Filberti but there are three late additions to the entry list from Via Petrovic, Vojtěch Kozcak and Adas Zalagaitis.
Defending World Champion Roberto Mariani is the clear favourite to prevail in Freestyle but the category has been bolstered by the addition of the Hungarian duo of Wolfgang Strasser and Maximilian Martha alongside Massimo Accumolo and Paulo Nuñes.
Next weekend’s racing is based out of the coastal town of Mira with the competition taking place off Barrinha Beach in Praia de Mira.