Athens braced to host opening round

Athens, Greece: The Chairman of the World Professional Powerboat Association (WPPA) is pleased with the facilities in place as the new body braces itself for the opening round of the 2007 WPPA Class One World Powerboat Championship from today.

"This is our first season as organisers of a world championship and we are pleased with the way the organisers here have worked towards putting all things in place for the first race," Hareb told Gulf News as he prepared to leave for the Palaio Faliro-Athens, the venue for the race. "We have had minor problems with the logistics, but that is to be expected as this is our first time in Athens and also the first time for the WPPA in organising such a huge championship," Hareb stated.

The 11 participating teams have already arrived and have set up base at the Palaio Faliro-Athens. Today's activities will start with the technical scrutineering and a first official practice session on the race course. Hareb and other top officials from the WPPA and IOTA will also have an official meeting with all the teams later this evening.

"We have come a long way since our decision to establish the WPPA at the end of the 2006 season in December last year," Hareb said. "The framing of the rules, keeping an open channel for communication and taking the sport to a higher professional level has always been prominent for us," Hareb added.

In a twist of sorts, the UIM has sought contact and a fresh round of talks with the WPPA. "But we do not want to deviate and allow our attention to stray from the main issue of conducting a successful race in Athens," Hareb insisted.

"We are going ahead with the first race, and yet we are open to any sort of talks and communication with the UIM, and we will take up this matter with IOTA (the joint promoters of the 2007 Class One) when we meet in Oslo next month," Hareb promised.

Tomorrow, teams will get the chance to carry out testing before the revised Edox Pole Position competition.

The Greek Grand Prix will be held on Sunday with the teams going through an hour of official practice. The actual race will run over 21 laps to cover a total distance of 96.63Nm. This also consists of a 4.81Nm starting lap, 18 runs across the 4.54 Nm course and two mandatory long laps of 5.05 Nm.