Thursday, February 1: Aquabike Promotion has received a terrific response to the announcement of a stunning 2024 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship calendar. Twenty-one racers have already been contracted for the Ski Division GP1 category and a further 11 will compete for Ski Ladies GP1 honours.
Mickael Poret got the better of Oliver Koch Hansen and his brother Morgan Poret to seal the UIM Ski Division GP1 World Championship in 2023 and the 36-year-old, from Niévroz, returns to defend the title he secured with victory in the third Moto on Lake Toba in Indonesia last November.
The Frenchman won the championship by eight points and is set to lock horns with both Koch Hansen and his brother again when the season gets underway at Quy Nhon in the province of Bình Đinh in central Vietnam on March 22nd-24th. His other brother Jeremy Poret is also entered in the category along with fellow French riders Alex Barret and Valentin Dardillat.
Austrian racer Kevin Reiterer only took part in the last Grand Prix in Indonesia last year but the multiple World Champion still managed to finish 11th in the standings after claiming a third and a second-placed finish and 11 points in Moto3 on Lake Toba. He will be pushing the leaders hard in 2024.
Alex Courtois was fourth last year and will be hoping to upset the applecart and challenge for the podium this season in a field that includes the Italian trio of Matteo Benini, Daniele Piscaglia and Andrea Guidi and Hungarian racer Gabor Szabo. Piscaglia and Benini finished sixth and seventh in the points’ standings in 2023. Swiss rider Alec Enderli finished last season in fifth place and the 24-year-old resident of Les Pons de Martel returns for another season of top flight action.
Anthony Beernaut and Quinten Bossche represent Belgium, Slaven Ivancic flies the Croatian flag, Toshy O’Hara has entered under the flag of Japan and the list also includes Denmark’s Mads Koch Hansen, Norway’s Daniel Svae Andersen and the North American duo of Russel Maxence and Devon Farthing, who are representing Canada and the USA, respectively.
The 2023 UIM Ski Ladies GP1 World Championship became a battle ground between Jessica Chavanne and Jasmiin Ypraus, with the French girl prevailing with victory in the last of the Indonesian Motos to win the world title by 10 points.
The duo will lock horns again in 2024 and their three closest rivals – Emma-Nelli Ortendahl, Virginie Morlaes and Benedicte Drange – have also registered. They were separated by just four points in 2023 with Ortendahl pipping Morlaes to third place on a tie-breaker.
Competition for the leading quintet comes from Portugal’s Joana Graca, French girl Estelle Poret, the Swedish duo of Janina Johansson and Sofie Borgström, Monaco-based Lisa Caussin Battaglia and Italian racer Naomi Benini.