Monday, June 10: With the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy now around 10 days away, we take a look at the provisional list of 29 racers in the Runabout GP1 category that Aquabike Promotion has announced will take part in the second round of the UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship in Olbia on June 21st-23rd. The massive provisional entry also contains a score of racers in Runabout GP2, 15 in Runabout GP4 and 10 in Runabout GP4 Ladies.
François Medori will have his work cut out to retain his world Runabout GP1 title and try and seal a third career championship success. The Frenchman graces an entry list that contains 28 rivals from 19 countries. Fellow countryman Jeremy Perez and Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq were his closest rivals last season and return to battle it out at the head of a field that sees Jean-Baptiste Baldassari and Guillaume Hemain also representing France.
Rasmus Koch Hansen and Martin Al Haj line up for Denmark, Sweden is represented by Samuel Johansson, Linus Lindberg and Johan Johansson and Benjamin Boecker, Robert Wallenborn and Marcel Diebert are entered under the German flag.
Gyorgy Kasza and Kristian Kuchta will represent Hungary, Yordan Nikolov is the sole Bulgarian entrant and there are also solitary country entries from Czech Martin Doulik, Lithuania’s Egidijus Kirilevicius, Poland’s Andrzej Wisniewski, Portugal’s Lino Araújo, Spain’s Ruben Jimenez Riquelme, Slovakian Mario Lamy, Estonian Mattias Siimann and Japan’s Jun Ikoma. The entry is completed by Kuwait’s Rashed Al-Dawas, the Italian duo of Lorenzo Benaglia and Alberto Santini and the American pairing of Juan Lezcano and talented all-rounder Anthony Radetic.
Manuel Reggiani claimed the Runabout GP2 world title in 2023 but neither the Italian nor Polish runner-up Marcin Senda are in the list of 20 names that grace the unofficial entry for the race weekend in Sardinia. Italy’s Pierpaolo Terreo finished on the bottom step of the podium last summer and he heads a five-strong field of Italian racers which also includes Alessandro Fracasso, Gaetano Costagliola, Michele Marras and Nicola De Giorgi.
Poland will be represented by Kamil Fadrowski, Juliusz Roman, Igor Tycel and Blazej Kasprowicz and Belgium has a pair of entries for Tom Claerhout and Robin Laforge. The field is completed by Germany’s Justin Patzner, Emirati Abdullah Al-Hammadi, Czech Petr Dryjak, Portugal’s Fabio Costa, Monégasque Killian Miano, Frenchman Tom Baudin, Spaniard Ruben Jimenez, Lithuania’s Mindaugas Jaciauskas and Estonian Mattias Siimann.
Czech racer Nikola Dryjakova is the defending World Runabout GP4 Ladies champion after beating Italy’s Arianna Urlo and Germany’s Michelle Dimov by six points in Sardinia last year. She tops a 10-strong entry that also includes her two closest challengers last season and the Estonian duo of Carmen Roosmaa and Ester Rosin.
Spain’s Ashira Zamora, the French duo of Clara Muchembled and Cyrielle Bramm, Czech Marketa Hollerova and Italian Ludovica Urlo round off the entrants.
Ibiza-based Spaniard Alejandro Prats Palau pipped Petr Dryjak to the Runabout GP4 world title by just three points in 2023 and he tops the 15-strong field again this time in Olbia. Dryjak and third-placed Italian Davide Pontecorvo also grace the entry, which includes the Estonian quartet of Henri Koppas, Karl Keskula, Arti Molter and Laanisto Marek.
The remainder of the field is made up of the Lithuanian duo of Lukas and Paulius Baguckas, Bahrain’s Ahmed Al-Hermi, the Italian pairing of Antonio Pontecorvo and Davide Santini, Monaco-based Killian Miano, Spain’s Adrian Albuera Cobos and Croatian racer Jurica Marovic.