*Beatriz Curtinal eases to victory number 3 to extend her Championship lead
Saturday, 20 June:, ROSES, GIRONA (Spain): There were double celebrations for the hosting country of round 2 of the UIM-ABP Aquabike European Continental Championship with Spain’s Nacho Armillas and Jordi Thomas winning their respective opening heats in Ski GP1 and Runabout GP2.
The Spanish success capped a great afternoon of racing in testing conditions, the spectacle heightened by the dead-engine beach start in all categories in front of the marina.
For 22-year-old Armillas, who lives just 30km away and trains locally, it was somewhat of a Spanish stroll, Thomas also dominating his heat to lead from start-to-finish.
Armillas grabbed the advantage from pole-sitter Mickael Poret immediately and never looked troubled throughout, producing a near faultless performance to take his first win on the European Continental tour and running out the nine laps in 18:11.863s to take victory by a massive 23 seconds. “It is something special to win in your own country,” said Armillas. “I really have been feeling the pressure and knew that I had to make the best start. And I did. Now there is more pressure on me to take the overall win.”
Second place went Marvin Martinez who despite a race long pursuit by Raphael Maurin, held on, a somewhat frustrated Mickael Poret unable to make up for a poor start and finishing fourth, but happy to see the chequered flag, his brother Morgan almost closing him down after starting from 17th place on the outside of the start line.
The heroics of the afternoon belonged to France’s Jeremy Perez who, despite feeling severely under the weather and on medication for a severe viral infection that has plagued him for days, produced an astonishing win in Runabout GP1, leading from pole position to take the victory from Jordi Thomas by over 14 seconds, Christophe Agostinho taking third. “I have nothing left. I can’t feel my legs or my arms,” said an exhausted Perez who immediately retired to bed after the victory. “I had to build up a big lead because I knew I would struggle in the later stages and start to tire. Now all I want to do is rest and hopefully can finish the job tomorrow.”
The only real battle, as the lead quartet raced line astern with Carlini in fourth, was between Sebastien Bondi and Herve Partouche until Partouche’s spectacular high-side and parting company with his bike at the end of lap 10.
In Ski Ladies GP2 Portugal’s Beatriz Curtinhal produced a blistering start to move from fifth at the start to first at the end of lap 1, and was in control throughout taking the chequered flag and the win by 14 seconds, her third straight victory in the Championship.
Second place went to Sweden’s Jonna Borgstrom who held of a sustained chase by pole-sitter Jennifer Menard, who was under pressure from Emma-Nellie Ortendahl until lap 5 when she tumbled, but recovered to take fifth place behind Virginie Morlaes.
In ski GP2 the honours went to Raphael Maurin, victory in GP3 going to Gabor Szabo, Nycolas Olivin the winner in the junior heat and maximum points in Runabout GP3 going to Claude Vangasbeck.
Results heat 1:
http://aquabike.net/pdf/heat%201%20results.pdf