Sharjah: Quinten Boscche, Emma-Nellie Ortendahl and James Bushell were the pace-setters in Monday’s qualifying while the UAE’s Rashid Al Mulla took the top spot in the Freestyle category at the end of the opening day of the Grand Prix of Sharjah of the UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship on Monday.

The first group out onto the water was the 19-strong line-up in Ski GP1 and it was championship leader Bossche who dominated both sessions and earn the right to start Moto 1 from pole position. The Belgian rider topped the time sheets in Q1 with a 1:57.07s lap and improved by nearly four seconds in Q2 to take his third pole position of the season with a fastest time of 1:53.89s. Second quickest was the overall winner in Sharjah in the previous two years Kevin Reiterer, with the defending world champion who currently sits in third in the championship standings, Jeremy Poret, 0.93s down in third.

Championship leader Ortendahl made no mistakes in the Ladies division leading the field of nine throughout and easing through the first session by a margin of 4.48s from Jonna Borgstrom and Krista Uzare and then sealed pole position in Q2 on her first flying lap with a 1:56.63s lap. Her main rival in the title race Estelle Poret picked up her pace in Q2 to go second quickest with 1:59.79s ahead of Dubai pole — sitter Katrin Nilbe in third.

As was to be expected the fight for the pole in Runabout was between the world ranked top three and after taking it relatively easy in the first session posting the fifth best time, title challenger Bushell stepped it up a gear or three and was the only rider to break the 1:50 barrier to take pole position with a blistering 1:48.45s lap.

The man ahead of Bushell in the points Lars Akerblom went second quickest with a 1:51.10s lap with the rider sitting above both of them in the points and bidding for a fourth world title, Kuwaiti Yousuf Al Abdul Razzaq, going third quickest. Jeremy Perez reminded all three of his pace and that he could well be a threat in fourth place, while the UAE’s Rashid Al Tayer produced a very strong run in fifth posting a time of 1:53.56s, with Johan Johansson rounding out the top six.

The first of Tuesday’s two Motos starts at 10am with the second at 3pm.