Abdulrazzaq and Poret claim Grand Prix of Qatar pole

Kuwait’s Yousef al-Abdulrazzaq in action during the Runabout pole position session in Doha yesterday; (below) Nac Florjancic.

By Sports Reporter/Doha

Kuwait’s Yousef al-Abdulrazzaq, Frenchman Jeremy Poret and French lady Jennifer Menard were the stand-out performers in their Runabout, Ski GP1 and Ski GP1 Ladies categories from the pole position sessions at the fourth UIM-ABP Aquabike Grand Prix of Qatar on Doha Bay yesterday afternoon.

Entrants had benefited from free practice and pre-qualifying sessions during the morning and early afternoon before attention switched to pole position heats to determine the qualifying positions for today’s first World Championship heats. The event is being organised by the Qatar Marine Sports Federation (QMSF).

Sixty-seven riders graced the provisional entry list with an impressive number of Qatari riders filling two of the four categories.

Pole position honours in the competitive Runabout category fell to Kuwait’s defending world champion Yousef al-Abdulrazzaq, who had been the quickest of the Runabout riders in the free practice session with a lap of 1min 42.85sec. That was a stunning 2.67sec quicker than the time set by Jeremy Perez.

It was a good indicator for the pole position session later in the afternoon and the Kuwaiti clocked the best lap of 1min 36.37sec in Pole Position 2 to claim top spot from Hungary’s Gyorgy Kazla, Frenchman Cyrille Lemoine and the flying fourth-placed Qatari Mohamed al-Haidus.

Waleed al-Sharshani, al-Haidus, Amer Itani, Majed al-Sharshani, Ahmad al-Dawas, Thamer al-Darwish, Hesham Bakhsh, Hamad Aladlali and Abdullah al-Terkait are representing Qatar in the Runabout category.

Rashid al-Mannai was a non-starter in a free practice session that was won by Sweden’s Lars Akerblom with a time of 1min 53.01sec. Ahmed al-Dawas finished second for the host nation and Majed al-Sharshani and Thamer al-Darwish were third and fourth.

Hungary’s Gyorgy Kasza won pre-qualifying with a lap of 1min 39.92sec and he was shadowed by the Qatari riders al-Darwish and al-Haidus.

Pole position in Ski Division GP1 was earned in the first session by the talented American Chris MacClugage with a lap of 1min 41.55sec and that was sufficient to stun Jeremy Poret into second. Ludovic Caumont, who is running on a Qatari licence, ran well to hold third position with Italy’s Alberto Monti in fourth.

But Poret hit back in Pole Position 2 with a lap of 1min 34.72sec to claim top spot from MacClugage, Spain’s Nachete Armillas and Portugal’s Tiago Sousa. Caumont qualified in fifth.

Jennifer Menard was the quickest of the three ladies in free practice and she was also the fastest in pole position qualifying with a time of 1min 58.56sec, the French lady finishing the session 0.67sec in front of fellow French competitor Estelle Poret and well clear of Italy’s Marta Sorrentino.

The first of the World Championship heats take place today afternoon after a further 70 minutes of free practice in the morning. Spectators are also welcome to attend what promises to be a spectacular parallel slalom, ski runabout and freestyle show on the course off the Doha Corniche from 7pm today evening.

Today’s schedule

10.00 - 10.20: Ski Division GP1 Free practice

10.25 - 10.45: Runabout GP1 FP

10.50 - 11.10: Freestyle Free practice

14.00 - 14.30: Ski Division GP1 World Championship – 1st heats

14.30 - 15.00: Freestyle World Championship – 1st heats

15.15 - 15.45: Runabout GP1 World Championship – 1st heats

19.00 - 21.00: Parallel Slalom Ski & Runabout and Freestyle Show