Tuesday, August 13: François Medori is the man of the moment in the world of international aqua biking. The defending UIM-ABP Runabout GP1 World Champion has recently won the European Endurance Championship, two Motos and the Grand Prix of Vichy in France and is firmly in contention to retain his world Runabout GP1 crown. 

The Corsica-born 38-year-old has been competing for a number of years and claimed the first of his two world Runabout titles in convincing style way back in 2012. The doctor of pharmacy then took a back seat from international competition for several seasons but returned with a vengeance in 2023 after a part-time campaign in 2021 and a season where he finished as runner-up to Marcus Jorgensen in 2022.

Last year’s Runabout GP1 world series was fought out over four Motos in Sardinia and Indonesia and Medori was pushed hard by Jérémy Perez, with Medori claiming the title by just five points following back-to-back wins in Sardinia and a third and a second-place finish in southeast Asia at the inaugural Grand Prix of Lake Toba-Indonesia.

A keen all-rounder, Medori also competed in last year’s Endurance World Championship in Sumatra but finished the three-day bonanza on Lake Toba down in 11th place.

Keen to re-create the form he showed in the UIM-ABP series in 2023, Medori came flying out of the blocks at the inaugural Grand Prix of Bình Định-Vietnam in Quy Nhơn in March and pipped Samuel Johansson to victory in the opening Moto. The Swede redressed the balance in Moto 2 to take the Grand Prix win on a tie-break but Medori regained the championship lead after winning the opening Moto in Olbia in June. Johansson hit back strongly, however, to win Moto 2 and Medori came home in third place behind the Grand Prix-winning Estonian Mattias Siimann.

The outcome of this year’s Runabout GP1 World Championship is nicely poised before the showdown on Lake Toba in November with Johansson leading his French rival by just three points.

The French spa town of Vichy hosted the UIM-ABP European Endurance World Championship on the Allier River in late July and Medori was one of the favourites from the start of the five-Moto race programme. He was unable to stop Portuguese rival Lino Araújo from clinching Moto 1 from pole position but that was as good as it got for Medori’s rivals.

Over the following two days, the determined Frenchman combined a hectic endurance programme with his Runabout GP1 duties and won the next four Endurance Motos to seal the European Endurance Championship title by 25 points from Spaniard Ruben Jimenez Riquelme.

With one European title in the bag, Medori now heads into a hectic autumn where he still has an outside chance of winning the Runabout GP1 category in the European Championship. But, more importantly, he will go head-to-head with Johansson to try and retain his world Runabout GP1 title on Lake Toba just a day after trying to add the World Endurance title to his European crown.