Monday, November 11: A two-day finale to the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship will follow three days of endurance racing on Lake Toba on the Indonesian island of Sumatra on November 16th-17th.
The provisional entry list for the third and final round of this year’s World Championship includes all the title protagonists across the four racing disciplines in a field of 23 Runabout GP1 riders, 22 in Ski Division GP1, a dozen in Ski Ladies GP1 and four in Freestyle. The lists also include the defending World Champion in each category and riders from 27 countries.
The Runabout GP1 field of 23 racers is one of the strongest ever assembled for a final round of the World Championship. Young Swede Samuel Johansson has enjoyed one of his best ever seasons and heads into the Lake Toba showdown with a slender three-point lead over the defending World Champion François Medori. Mathematically, eight riders can still win the title although, realistically, it looks like being a Sumatran showdown between Johansson and Medori.
Fifty points are still at stake and Hungarian racer György Kasza trails the leading Swede by 34, while Portugal’s Lino Araújo, Spaniard Ruben Jimenez Riquelme, Sweden’s Linus Lindberg and Czech Martin Doulik Junior have a mathematical chance to upset the applecart.
The formidable Runabout line-up also includes Pole Andrzej Wisniewski, America’s Anthony Radetic and Frenchman Jérémy Perez in a field with additional riders from Brazil, China, Bulgaria, Lithuania, Italy, Slovakia, Japan and Denmark.
Quinten Bossche has been in sensational form this season in the Ski Division GP1 category. A remarkable show of consistent racing has seen the Belgian win each of the six Motos in Vietnam and Sardinia to collect a perfect 150 points. That said, it could quickly unravel for the Belgian if he doesn’t continue that form on Lake Toba: Austrian Kevin Reiterer is his closest challenger after four second-place finishes, a third and a fourth and he trails by 24 points with 75 still at stake.
Drivers down as far as seventh position could still mathematically have a say in the title race but the World Championship is Bossche’s to lose. Morgan and Jérémy Poret hold third and fourth in the Drivers’ Championship and a slip up by either Bossche or Reiterer in the first Moto would certainly open their door for a late challenge by the French brothers.
The 22-strong Ski Division GP1 field includes a plethora of some of the most esteemed names in the sport: these include Dane Oliver Koch Hansen and his brother Mads, Japan’s Toshi Ohara, French racers Axel Courtois and Alex Barret, Norway’s Dag Martin Drange and Swiss Alec Enderli.
The Ski Ladies GP1 battle is a much closer affair: Estonian Jasmiin Ypraus has a one-point lead over Estelle Poret before the final round where 12 girls will battle it out for Grand Prix honours.
Seventy-five points are still at stake and that means that the likes of defending World Champion Jessica Chavanne, European Champion Benedicte Drange, Sweden’s Sofie Borgström and Emma-Nellie Ortendahl, American River Varner, Portugal’s Joana Graca, Italy’s Naomi Benini, Monaco-based Lisa Caussin Battaglia, Swede Janina Johansson and French girl Virginie Morlaes could all still have a say in the destiny of the 2025 World Championship.
Ypraus has won three of the six Motos this season to Poret’s one victory and Chavanne’s two thus far, but a retirement from Moto 3 in Vietnam could well prove costly for Chavanne come the end of the year.
World Champion Roberto Mariani has already secured the 2024 European Freestyle Championship title but the Italian faces a much stiffer challenge to get the better of Team Abu Dhabi’s Rashid Al-Mulla in the World Championship.
Both competitors have again been the class of the Freestyle field this season but Al-Mulla has taken three Moto wins to one for Mariani and has a six-point cushion to take to Lake Toba. Portugal’s Paulo Nuñes looks set to finish the season in third place on the podium unless Morocco’s Yassine Fadli can pull off a pair of remarkable performances in the remaining two Motos.
The spectacular volcanic Lake Toba forms 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).
Technical checks and administration formalities will be carried out during the endurance racing on November 14th and 15th before a hectic two-day programme on the water at a new location in Pangururan on the west of Samosir Island fires into life with free practice for each of the categories, starting at 09.00hrs (GMT +7) on November 16th.
The qualifying sessions follow from 10.30hrs onwards and precede the three opening Motos from 15.15hrs and an additional practice session for Freestyle entrants. A Parallel Slalom competition and the first of the Freestyle Motos will entertain the crowds in Pangururan after nightfall from 19.00hrs.
The second of the Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski Division GP1 Motos are scheduled from 10.30hrs on November 17th and precede additional Runabout and Freestyle practice. The third of the Ski Ladies GP1 and Ski Division GP1 heats open the afternoon’s action from 14.00hrs and pave the way for the second of the Runabout GP1 Motos and the Freestyle finale from 15.20hrs. The prizegiving ceremony is scheduled for 17.00hrs.