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Friday, October 2: For the first time since 2019, competitive racing in the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship took place in China, as riders battled it out in Moto 1 for their first wins of the season in the megacity of Shanghai.

Runabout GP1

Gyorgy Kasza flew off the starting pontoon to take the early lead, with Jeremy Perez shortly behind him as they headed into the splits for the first time. Kasza took the outside split, while Perez took the inside split, setting up a tight parallel battle between the two in their respective lanes. As they merged, Perez managed to squeeze in front of Kasza to take the holeshot and the race lead.

The riders therefore headed into the first full lap with Perez leading, Kasza second, and current World Champion Francois Medori behind them. Perez and Kasza took the opposite splits the second time around, with Perez on the outside and Kasza on the inside as they once again battled it out in their parallel lanes. The second time around, it was Kasza who emerged out of the splits first, narrowly taking the first turn in front of Perez, and then holding onto his lead from there.

Kasza then quickly went to work on building up a lead that would preclude Perez from taking back first place. By the third lap, Kasza had established a lead of 7.694 seconds over Perez, who in turn had Medori 1.388 seconds behind him. The order of the podium places then settled after a highly contested first few laps, with Kasza gradually building up his lead with every lap, and Perez establishing some breathing space between himself and Medori, with a 5.977 second cushion between the two Frenchmen by the eighth lap.

Medori managed to close down the gap to within less than two seconds on the penultimate lap, setting up a battle between the Frenchmen for second place going into the final lap. That was until Medori made an uncharacteristic mistake, missing a buoy on the split and having to take a penalty turn, allowing Perez to rebuild a comfortable lead and killing any chance of a last gasp overtake.

After taking the lead on the second lap, Kasza maintained his lead throughout the race, crossing the finish line 18.203 seconds ahead of second-placed Perez to take the first Moto win of the 2026 season. Current World Champion Medori will now have a challenge on his hands to retain his title, as he ends the first Moto with 20 points from his third place finish.

Ski GP1

Quinten Bossche continued his stunning form from the European Championship into his World Championship campaign, as the Belgian took advantage of his pole position to snatch the holeshot in Moto 1 and dominated the rest of the race from there. Jeremy Poret and Alec Enderli also maintained their positions to come out of the first lap in second and third place respectively.

By the second lap, Bossche had already extended his lead to 6.872 seconds, and from there he only continued to add space between himself and the rest of the pack, extending his lead to 30.995 seconds by the fifth lap. It was on the fifth lap that there was finally some movement in the top three positions, as Valentin Dardillat found the pace to move up into third place as he displaced Enderli during the splits, after which Dardillat quickly built a defensive gap of 3.772 seconds over Enderli to protect his podium place.

Enderli then continued to tumble down places, getting overtaken by Xavier Pessleux on the following lap and immediately facing a challenge from Matteo Benini for fifth place. It took until the tenth lap for Benini to make the move on Enderli, who then suffered a double overtake as Anthony Beernaut also squeezed past him coming out of the splits.

Bossche started the season in spectacular style, crossing the checkered flag with a lead of almost a whole minute. Jeremy Poret crossed the finish line 57.594 seconds later to take second place, followed by Dardillat, Pessleux, Benini, Beernaut, and then Enderli.

Ski Ladies GP1

Estelle Poret had a perfect start to her campaign to defend her Ski Ladies GP1 World Championship, as she led from start to finish in Moto 1 to claim the full 25 points available. Starting in pole position, she confidently took the holeshot after rapidly taking off from the starting pontoon. By her first lap, Poret had already extended her lead to 1.941 seconds over second place Jessica Chavanne.

By the second lap, Jasmiin Ypraus found a gap to overtake Chavanne in the splits and move up to second place, but by that time Poret had extended her lead further, to 5.984 seconds. Ypraus got straight down to the job of hunting down Poret for first place, cutting down the gap between the two to 3.747 seconds. But, whilst concentrating on what was ahead of her, Ypraus faced a challenge from the rear as a rapid Chavanne fought to retake second place. On the fifth lap, Chavanne had the fastest lap of any rider – including race leader Poret – and that pace helped her beat Ypraus on the splits to move back into second place, which she held onto until the chequered flag.

Poret therefore triumphed, though second-placed Chavanne claimed the fastest lap of Moto 1 with a time of 01:48.406 seconds. After her stint in second place, Ypraus had to content herself with a third place finish. Benedicte Drange and Naomi Benini rounded out the rest of the top five.

Freestyle

Roberto Mariani faces a challenging season as the current World Champion tries to retain his title, after his acrobatic routine received 181 points from the judges and saw him place third. Ahead of him came Demi Morgan, the American rider making her Aquabike debut. Morgan marked her World Championship debut with an ambitious routine filled with enormous backflips with significant airtime, but that ambition also cost her, as some of her more daring tricks saw her falling into the water, costing her valuable points from the judges, who awarded her 203 points. 

After narrowly losing out on the Championship last year, Rashid Al Mulla brought his best to the first Moto of the season as he tries to add another title to his impressive arsenal. The Abu Dhabi Team rider started his routine with over a dozen consecutive backflips in a show of his strong endurance as well as acrobatic ability, and was well rewarded by the judges. Al Mulla was awarded 227 points by the judges, enough to see him come out on top in Moto 1, and setting him up perfectly for this season’s title charge.