News
Tuesday, March 25: Aquabike Promotion has announced that the province of Lecce in the Italian region of Puglia will host the second round of the UIM-ABP Aquabike Circuit Pro World Championship at Torre dell’Orso on September 26th-28th.
The stunning area of southeastern Italy is a coastal region on the Adriatic Sea known for its marine beauty and Torre dell’Orso (translated as Bear Tower), near Melendugno, will see the championship’s return to the region for the first time since 2018. Together with the major four racing categories, competitors from several of the other Ski Division and Runabout classes will also take part in the race weekend.
Raimondo di San Germano, CEO of Aquabike Promotion, said: “We are delighted to be returning to Puglia, this beautiful region of southeastern Italy after an absence of seven years. We have many memories of challenging racing and beautiful locations and are looking forward to hosting the second round of this year’s championship in stunning Torre dell’Orso.”
The Puglia region hosted regular rounds of the series between 2015 and 2018 with the town of Castro starting the trend. On that occasion, honours in the Runabout GP1, Ski Division GP1, Ski Ladies GP1 and Runabout categories went to Khalifa Bensaleh, Kevin Reiterer, Emma-Nellie Ortendahl and Nac Florjancic.
The following year, action switched to the coastal town of Otranto for the opening round of a five-race campaign. Marcus Jorgensen won both Runabout GP1 Motos to pick up a maximum 50 points and victories in the Ski Division GP1 and Ski Ladies GP1 categories again fell to Reiterer and Ortendahl. Nac’s brother Rok prevailed in Freestyle.
The towns of Porto Cesareo and Vieste hosted the opening two rounds of the 2017 season in June. Kuwait’s Yousef Al-Abdulrazzaq, Jérémy and Estelle Poret and Rok Florjancic prevailed in the main four race categories at the opening Grand Prix, although the meeting also hosted Motos for the Ski Division GP2 and GP3 and Runabout GP2 and GP4 classes. Wins followed for Daniel Svae Andersen, Quinten Bossche, Mattia Fracasso and Christian Cagnard.
Great Britain’s James Bushell stunned his rivals to top the standings in the Runabout GP1 section to win the Grand Prix of Mediterranean in Vieste. Mickael and Estelle Poret and Nac Florjancic also won their respective Grand Prix.
The historic town of Gallipoli hosted round one of a three-race series in 2018 and that was the last event to be held in Puglia. Al-Abdulrazzaq, Raphael Morin, Krista Uzare and Rashid Al-Mulla claimed the winners’ spoils.
Aquabike Promotion has already announced that Lake Toba in Sumatra will host the opening round of the UIM-ABP World Aquabike Championship and the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Endurance Championship from August 13th-17th.