Sharjah: The Poret trio has just one aim in mind when the 2016 UIM-ABP Aquabike Ski World Championship gets under way in March next year. The three Poret brothers want to reclaim the titles that they feel have been rightfully theirs over the past few years.
On Sunday evening, there was a new order established in the world of aquabikes when Kevin Reiterer of Austria, Jennifer Menard of France and Yousuf Abdul Razzaq of Kuwait won the world titles in their respective categories as the 2015 UIM-ABP Aquabike Ski World Championship concluded at the Khalid Lagoon.
Abdul Razzaq snatched victory on the last lap of the Runabout GP1 class when his challenger Jean Baptiste Botti broke down, Reiterer denied the chasing French duo of Jeremy and Mikael Poret in the AB Ski division, while Menard was crowned champion in the women’s class despite Spain’s Beatriz Curtinhal winning both the races in Sharjah.
“We are definitely not familiar finishing in placings further down the order,” Mikael Poret told Gulf News.
“All three of us belong to the world of aquabikes and for the past so many years we have dominated. But today it is time to hand over the baton to the others,” added the eldest of the Poret brothers.
On Sunday, Jeremy Poret had done well to take pole ahead of Reiterer and Nacho Armillas for the second race. But the second youngest Poret could not sustain the pressure as the Austrian was simply flying over the ten laps of the race. That win was enough for Reiterer to end at the top of the overall standings with 161 points leaving Jeremy in second with 111 points while Armillas was third with 106 points and Mikael came in fourth with 105.
“For the past more than 10 years we have been untouchable in this category. It was always a fight between us three brothers — the youngest Morgan did not make the trip to Sharjah — and we could put up with that. Either it was me winning or Jeremy winning. There was no one else who could beat us,” Mikael recounted.
“But now we find that it is time to make way for someone else. All credit to Kevin [Reiterer]. We are all happy for his success. We have known him from a very young age and he is like a member of our family. But we cannot accept the fact that the world title has been gone to someone else other than a Poret,” Mikael said.
“But there is no reason to worry as we will train even harder and return even stronger to win the title back from Kevin in 2016,” he vouched.
