Powerboat Champion 2007

By RUBEN SARIO

KOTA KINABALU: Favourite Colin Jelf won the UIM F2000 World Cup Powerboat 2007 race in Sabah to be crowned world champion, but there was also gloom in his Jelf Racing Team when brother Owen was disqualified.

An irregularity in the carburettor size in Owen’s boat cost the Briton dearly as he lost not only second spot in the final leg held at the Waterfront here yesterday, but also dropped two rungs in the overall standings.

Top of the world: Briton Colin Jelf posing with the trophy and his son Ben, 7, on the podium. – NORMIMIE DIUN / The Star

Sabah Yang di-Pertua Negri Tun Ahmadshah Abdullah gave away the prizes to the winners.

Colin later told reporters that he was very happy to have won the hard race.

“For me, qualifying for pole position was perfect and Sunday’s race (postponed due to bad weather) was very difficult because my aim was to win the world championship,” he said.

“Luckily that all changed (yesterday) as the conditions were far more favourable for our set-up and I managed to get round the first lap in the lead. My brother was pushing me hard but I just had the edge,” said a relieved Colin.

Race (30 laps): 1. Colin Jelf (Bri) 31:25.99, 2. Rick Haakonsen (Nor) 31:32.82, 3. Uvis Slakteris (Lat) 31:36.88, 4. Genady Tuchkov (Lat) 31:38.56, 5. Jean Baptiste Thomas (Fra) 31:39.48, 6. Frode Sundsal (Nor) 31:43.25, 7. Ugis Cross (Lat) 31:56.39, 8. Laszlo Kovacs (Hun) 31:58.68, 9. Tommy Wahlsten (Swe) 32:00.48.

Final overall standings: 1. Jelf 62 pts, 2. Haakonsen 34, 3. Slakteris 30, 4. Alex Carella (Ita) 25, 5. Thomas 24, 6. Arif Al Zafeen (UAE) 19, 7. Duarte Benavente (Por) 19, 8. Cross 19, 9. Tuchkov 12, 10. Steve Cook (Bri) 9, 11. Kovacs 5, 12. Johan Coenradi (Ned) 4, 13. Sundsal 4, 14. Sergej Nikitin (Rus) 2, 15. Wahlsten 1.