Saturday, November 16: The town of Pangururan on the west of Samosir Island is playing host to two days of action to determine the winners of the Runabout GP1, Ski Division GP1, Ski Ladies GP1 and Freestyle categories in the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship.

The final entry lists for the bonanza on volcanic Lake Toba featured 20 Runabout GP1 riders, 22 in Ski Division GP1, 11 in Ski Ladies GP1 and four in Freestyle. The lists also include the defending World Champions in each category and riders from 23 countries. They were able to carry out free practice sessions on Saturday morning before the all-important qualifying sessions for the weekend’s Motos.

All 22 riders took to the water for the Ski Division GP1 practice session and Morgan Poret topped the times with a run of 1min 41.747sec during a six-lap stint on the water. Championship leader Quinten Bossche was just over a tenth off a second off the Frenchman’s pace and was closely shadowed by both Jérémy and Mickael Poret and Valentin Dardillat.

Jasmiin Ypraus is bidding to become the Ski Ladies GP1 World Champion and the Estonian set an impressive quickest lap of 1min 44.209sec to top the times by 3.448 seconds from European Champion Benedicte Drange. Outgoing World Champion Jessica Chavanne was third quickest.

Frenchman Jérémy Perez clocked a fastest time of 1min 34.636sec to top the Runabout GP1 free practice times. Yesterday’s triumphant Isahei Hajime was the only non-starter in a session where Hungarian racer György Kasza, Egidijus Kirilevicius, Rasmus Koch Hansen, championship leader Samuel Johansson and Ruben Jimenez Riquelme set top six times.

Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla heads into the weekend with a six-point lead over defending World Champion Roberto Mariani in the Freestyle category. Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes and Morocco’s Yassine Fadli are also chasing glory this weekend. Their first Moto will take place on Saturday evening.