Team Russia snatch Nation’s Cup victory

Team UAE’s Rashed Al Qemzi was the sole entrant in the Emirati team on Wednesday and was impressive in both sprint races.

Doha — Team Russia’s Andrei Panyushkin and Konstantin Ustinov snatched a comfortable victory in the 2015 UIM Nation’s Cup World Series in Qatar after two thrilling sprint races on Doha Bay on Wednesday afternoon. The duo were first and fifth in the opening race and second and third in the second to snatch victory from Team Belarus and Team Germany.

Team UAE’s Rashed Al Qemzi was the sole entrant in the Emirati team on Wednesday and was impressive in both sprint races. In the first, he stormed through from the rear of the field to snatch third, but he was deprived of second overall in the second when he was penalised a lap and slipped to 10th after striking a turn buoy.

A thrilling three-way fight developed to the chequered flag in the first 22-lap sprint race and long-time leader Andrey Panyushkin of Team Russia managed to fend off a fierce challenge from Team Belarus driver Roman Vandyshev to take a 1.14-second victory even though he had been overtaken by the Belarussian at the start of the yellow flag lap.

Team UAE’s Rashed Al Remeithi withdrew to enable Rashed Al Qemzi to fight for the outright victory in the number 14 boat and the Emirati produced the drive of the race to power his way from the rear of the field to third place. After an early yellow delay for a start system failure, the race appeared to be incident free until Roberto lo Piano spectacularly flipped his Team Italy boat in front of the timing tents on the penultimate lap. Mike Szymura claimed fourth for Team Germany and the outcome meant that Team Russia headed into the second race with a 23-point lead over Team Belarus.

Panyushkin headed Vandyshev and Al Qemzi from the start of the second race and the trio were the class of the field, with Vandyshev hitting the front from a hard-charging Al Qemzi. The Emirati survived a scare when he came close to flipping on lap 14, but he remained well clear of Panyushkin in second position until he was penalised for hitting a turn buoy. Vandyshev claimed the win at the chequered flag and Ustinov benefited from Team UAE’s misfortune to snatch third. Team Russia had gained the early advantage in the 2015 UIM Nations Cup on Tuesday afternoon. Andrei Panyushkin ran for 13 laps in the time trials and posted the quickest lap of 50.94sec on the 1,580-metre, four-pin Doha Bay course.