Two riders. One World Championship. And a final Moto that would turn the 2026 UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship standings upside down.
Gyorgy Kasza and defending World Champion François Medori entered the final Runabout GP1 Moto in Olbia, Italy, tied at 111 points after a spectacular battle that had already seen mechanical failures, dramatic comebacks and some of the weekend’s fiercest racing.
Kasza would cross the finish line first. Medori would follow in second. But when the official results were settled, neither would be World Champion.
Instead, Samuel Johansson would leave Sardinia with the crown.
The extraordinary conclusion came during the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy, which brought 160 riders from 27 nations to Olbia for the final round of the 2026 championship. Long regarded as the spiritual home of Aquabike racing, the coastal city hosted the season-ending GP1 battles alongside single-round World Championships in Ski GP2, GP3 and GP4, and Runabout GP2, GP4 and GP4 Ladies.
Friday’s qualifying sessions unfolded under intense sunshine and increasingly choppy conditions, while Saturday brought calmer seas, commanding victories and mechanical setbacks. A crash at the start of Runabout GP1 Moto 2 forced officials to postpone the race until Sunday, setting up an unforgettable final day.
Runabout GP1: A Championship Turned Upside Down
Kasza arrived in Olbia leading the championship after sweeping all three Motos in Shanghai. He secured pole position during Friday’s qualifying, but Saturday’s opening race quickly complicated his championship hopes.
Medori grabbed the holeshot, with Jeremy Perez moving into second while Kasza slipped to fourth. The Hungarian recovered quickly, passing Robin Laforge and closing on Perez, only to see Perez retire with mechanical problems.
Johansson moved into second during the confusion, but Kasza soon overtook him and appeared ready to challenge Medori.
Then mechanical trouble struck Kasza’s own watercraft.
His pace deteriorated, allowing Johansson to reclaim second as Medori extended his advantage. Kasza managed to finish, but dropped to tenth, surrendering his championship lead as Medori claimed the victory and entered Moto 2 three points ahead.
Sunday’s postponed Moto 2 brought a remarkable reversal.
Starting tenth, Kasza charged into fifth off the line and climbed to third before the opening lap was complete. Medori had taken another holeshot and was building a comfortable advantage over Johansson.
Kasza began hunting down Johansson, eventually taking second on lap eight. By then, Medori had established a lead of more than eight seconds.
But Kasza was just getting started.
The Hungarian began carving enormous chunks out of Medori’s advantage, recording a ninth-lap time of 1:28.770 compared with Medori’s 1:31.591. By the start of lap ten, the gap had shrunk to just 1.635 seconds.
One lap later, Kasza emerged from the splits ahead of Medori.
And once he had the lead, he never looked back.
Kasza crossed the finish line an extraordinary 22.921 seconds ahead of Medori, completing a stunning comeback from Saturday’s mechanical disappointment. Johansson finished third, leaving Kasza and Medori tied at 111 championship points, with Johansson eleven points behind.
The final Moto began with Kasza making his intentions unmistakable. His explosive acceleration carried him into an early lead, with Medori chasing and Johansson running third.
Rough water through the splits briefly worked in Medori’s favor, allowing him to close within 1.752 seconds. But Medori then missed a buoy and was forced to take the penalty buoy, increasing the gap to 5.709 seconds.
The championship appeared to be slipping toward Kasza.
Then came the unexpected turn that would decide everything.
Both Kasza and Medori received two-lap penalties for cutting the course, dramatically reshuffling the race results and championship standings.
Although Kasza crossed the finish line first and Medori second, the penalties dropped them to ninth and eleventh, respectively, in the official results. Johansson, third across the line, was elevated to the Moto victory.
With that result, Johansson secured the Runabout GP1 World Championship with 125 points, just two ahead of Kasza’s 123, while Medori finished third with 121.
For Kasza, it was a heartbreaking conclusion to a weekend that included one of the season’s most impressive comeback victories. For Medori, it meant surrendering the title he had fought so fiercely to defend.
And for Johansson, it was a World Championship victory secured in one of the most extraordinary finales of the season.
Ski GP1: Bossche Completes an Unbeaten Season
Quinten Bossche didn’t just win the 2026 Ski GP1 World Championship. The Belgian completed a perfect season across both the World and European Championships, winning every Moto he entered — including a remarkable last-to-first comeback in Olbia.
Bossche arrived in Sardinia having already swept the opening World Championship round in Shanghai and every Moto of the European Championship season. Despite increasingly choppy conditions during Friday’s qualifying, he secured pole position with a lap of 1:36.457.
Saturday’s opening Moto brought another commanding performance. Bossche grabbed the holeshot and quickly distanced himself from the field, building a lead of more than ten seconds by the third lap before crossing the finish line an astonishing 53.716 seconds ahead of Alec Enderli.
Jeremy Poret, who had missed qualifying because of engine problems, charged from the back of the field to finish seventh.
But Moto 2 would provide Bossche with perhaps his greatest challenge of the season.
An engine change forced him to surrender pole position and start from the back, giving his competitors an unexpected opportunity to interrupt his perfect season.
Enderli inherited pole and grabbed the holeshot ahead of Mattias Reinnas and Raphael Maurin. Bossche, meanwhile, wasted no time working forward, advancing to eighth on the opening lap and sixth by lap two.
Enderli lost the lead on lap four as Reinnas and Maurin moved past. Bossche continued his charge, overtaking Poret and Soshi Sato to reach fourth, then passing Enderli for third.
By lap seven, Bossche had climbed into second. One lap later, he overtook Reinnas for the lead, completing an extraordinary last-to-first comeback.
The performance echoed his Moto 3 victory in Olbia the previous year, when he also charged from the back to take the win.
By Sunday’s finale, Bossche had built an insurmountable 31-point championship advantage, mathematically securing the world title before the last race began.
But there would be no easing off the throttle.
Bossche took the holeshot and led Moto 3 from start to finish. Poret ran second, while Sato initially held third before falling into the water on lap seven and retiring when he could not restart his watercraft.
Bossche’s victory completed an undefeated 2026 campaign, sweeping every Moto in both the World and European Championships. Reinnas finished second in the Olbia Grand Prix standings, with Maurin third.
Ski Ladies GP1: Chavanne Claims Third World Title
Jessica Chavanne claimed her third UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship title in Olbia, adding the 2026 Ski Ladies GP1 crown to her previous championships in 2020 and 2023.
But the road to her latest title was anything but uneventful, as Benedicte Drange and Jasmiin Ypraus delivered some of the weekend’s most competitive racing.
Chavanne opened with Friday’s pole position, recording a qualifying lap of 1:43.934 despite increasingly choppy conditions. Drange was her closest challenger at 1:44.985, followed by Emy Garcia.
Drange claimed Saturday’s opening Moto, setting up an intense second race in which Chavanne briefly edged ahead at the start before Drange reclaimed the lead coming out of the splits.
Ypraus, meanwhile, was working her way into contention. After closing to within 1.565 seconds of Chavanne, she overtook her for second on the fourth lap, then set her sights on Drange.
Two laps later, Ypraus took advantage of the faster inside split to move into the lead, holding off the field to secure her first Moto victory of the season.
Sunday’s championship finale brought another dose of drama.
Chavanne entered Moto 3 knowing a top-six finish would secure the world title, while Drange remained in contention for the Grand Prix victory.
The opening start was red-flagged after Chavanne and Naomi Benini fell into the water. On the restart, Ypraus grabbed the holeshot, followed by Drange and defending World Champion Estelle Poret.
Chavanne slipped to fourth, then fifth as Garcia charged through the field, recording the race’s fastest lap and overtaking both Chavanne and Poret to move into third.
At the front, Ypraus steadily extended her advantage, building a lead of more than ten seconds by the fourth lap. Drange held second despite pressure from Garcia, while Chavanne maintained the fifth-place position she needed to secure her third World Championship.
Ypraus crossed the finish line first, completing a sweep of the weekend’s final two Motos.
Although Chavanne claimed the season’s biggest prize, Drange emerged as the Regione Sardegna Grand Prix of Italy winner, edging Ypraus by a single point in the weekend’s overall standings.
Freestyle: Morgan Makes Her Mark in Debut Season
American freestyle rider Demi Morgan made an impressive showing in her debut UIM-ABP Aquabike World Championship season, finishing second in the overall championship standings after an energetic performance in Olbia.
Morgan, who finished second in Shanghai before arriving in Sardinia, quickly became a crowd favorite during Saturday’s competition. Her high-energy routine featured technical somersaults and several remarkable recoveries that kept her out of the water when a crash appeared almost inevitable.
The performance earned her 227 points from the judges and added another dimension to an already competitive Freestyle field.
Sunday proved more challenging for the American. Although Morgan again brought plenty of energy to her routine, several unsuccessful trick attempts cost her valuable points, leaving her with a score of 190.
Defending World Champion Roberto Mariani of Italy delivered a crowd-pleasing performance highlighted by an impressive sequence of 20 consecutive backflips, earning 226 points.
But neither rider could match Rashed Al Mulla, who successfully landed a double backflip that had eluded him earlier in the weekend. The judges awarded Al Mulla 252 points, securing the Grand Prix victory and his seventh career Freestyle World Championship.
Mariani finished second at Olbia, with Morgan taking third. However, the final season standings told a different story: Morgan secured second place in the World Championship in her debut season, finishing ahead of Mariani, the reigning European Champion, who took third.
For Morgan, the championship runner-up finish capped a remarkable first season on the international Aquabike stage and established the American as a contender in a category long dominated by established Freestyle veterans.
Full race results and championship standings are available at Aquabike World Championship.
