World Inflatable Powerboat Championship ends on a high note

The week-long action of the UIM P750 World Inflatable Powerboat Championships drew to a close in dramatic fashion on Saturday where after the final discipline being a 120 kilometre endurance race ended with just one point separating first and second place overall in the Pro-Stock class. The event that comprised of circuit racing on the North End Lake, surf racing at Kings Beach as well as a long-haul endurance racing off the Beachfront was contested by teams from South Africa, Italy, Namibia, Germany and the Netherlands. In the standard class Dylan Bamberger & Carla Engelbrecht proved to be in a league of their own dominating all facets of the event to be crowned World Champions. The Pro-stock class that was very evenly contested saw the evergreen Wimpie Ackermann with co-pilot Monja Thiart triumphing and in the Modified class Renier le Roux & Johan Human from Klerksdorp proved that you don’t have to live at the coast to be World Champions by winning the class by seven points.

Beautifully balanced. Dylan Bamberger and Carla Engelbrecht on their way to winning the standard class of the World Championship.
Photo by Deon Ferreira

Councillor Bassie Kamana a member of the mayoral committee for sports, recreation and cultural services was on hand to present the awards at the closing function that was held at the Town Lodge Conference Centre over-looking the beachfront, and he had the following to say “it is events like these that ensure that Nelson Mandela Bay is seen as the Watersport Capital of the World and we thank each and every team that participated and ensured that this world championship event was a success and look forward to hosting it again in the future.”

The South African teams took a clean sweep across all disciplines and the results across the three internationally recognised classes were as follows:

Flatwater Circuit racing

Standard Class