By Abdellatif Sharaa

KUWAIT: Aquabike World Championship (the first round) for 2020 was opened under the patronage of HH the Amir Sheikh Sabah Al-Ahmad Al-Jaber Al-Sabah, in the presence of Information Minister, State Minister for Youth Affairs Mohammad Al-Jabri, Director General of Public Authority for Sports Dr Humoud Fulaiteh, PAS Deputy Director General for Competitive Sports Affairs Dr Saqer Al-Mulla, Chairman of Kuwait Sea Sports Club Mohammad Al-Zanki, board members and other sports leaders.

The opening started with a display of participating countries flags led by champion Yousuf Al-Abdelrazaq with Kuwait flag. There were also exciting fireworks followed by a display on water by several professionals, and it was concluded by laser displays.

Preliminaries of qualifications began yesterday afternoon, as the morning period was for checking engines, and having a training run in the race field. Advanced competition will be completed today with the participation of all world ranked riders who did not go through the preliminaries.

Meanwhile, the finals of all four categories GPI sitting, GPI men standing, GPI women standing, GPI free style will take place on Saturday afternoon and will end at 6 pm.

MAJOR PREPARATIONS

Director of Public Relations and Information at the Sea Sports Club Salman Al-Khulaifan lauded the large participation from various countries and wished them success. He said preparation for the championship four months earlier in order to have the best preparations possible and reach maximum success, for the sake of future events, in addition to proving Kuwait Youth ability to organize and manage the best world championships.

FANTASTIC ORGANIZATION

Meanwhile, Marketing Director of Aquabike Raimondo di San Gernano lauded the organization of Aquabike World Championship 2020 (the first round), being held in Kuwait for the first time under the patronage of HH the Amir. He said preparations by the Sea Sports Club are upto the best preparations for world championships, adding that success will be with the first round.

Kuwait's Champion Yousuf Al-Abdelrazaq said he is ready to compete for top place in the world championships (first round), despite the dislocated shoulder injury which he suffered in the UAE championships.

He said Kuwait's current weather is normal and ideal for Aquabike sports, adding that information has it the weather will be ideal during the weekend, and all what we have to do is concentrate in the presence of champions from France, UAE and Denmark who are the highest ranked in the world.