«It was a great race at a perfect venue with loads of spectators», says Jettribe Team Rider, Stian Schjetlein, racing at the Jettribe Nordic Championship in Bergen, Norway August 13-15, 2015.
With riders from more than 10 countries this event has truly been a big championship. The race was situated in the middle of the city giving a spectacular view for the audience, and magnificent weather gave fantastic scenery to the event.
Ski Lite and Ski Promotion were filled with great battles, not only throughout the course, but through the splits and on to the log jumps! The log jumps were right at the finish line and as close as possible to the spectators. This made for a fantastic show as riders went all in over the dual log jumps to make their passes. There were a lot of great passes, wabbles and of course submarines.
In Ski Elite a lot of riders had mechanical problems reducing the amount of riders and also forcing several riders to swap to back-up skis and even Lite skis. Despite the big power differences, Kevin Reiterer, Markus Lutsokert, Daniel Andersen, Christer Sandtorv and Stian Schjetlein, did a great job putting on a show for the spectators with good battles throughout the weekend. Kevin Reiterer ended up taking the Jettribe Nordic Championship title in both Ski Promotion and Ski Elite.
In the Runabout classes, Seadoo Spark was the biggest class. But with names like James Bushell, Lars Åkerblom, David Godlington and Christer Sandtorv on the line, riding 350-500+ horsepower monsters, Runabout Elite was definitely a spectator favorite!! The Swedish Champion Lars Åkerblom was the strongest in the pack and took the overall win in front of the Englishmen David “Ducky” Godlington and James Bushell.
In the Junior 13-16 Lites class there were eight riders. Six boys and two girls. It was a close race between Viljar Berntsen (12), Oliver Liseth (12) and Dag Martin Drange (12) all from Hjellestad Jetski Club, but Viljar Berntsen managed to win all three motos. Oliver Liseth and Dag Martin Drange came as number two and three respectively.
There were also a Junior class for 10-12 year olds. According to regulation of kids sports events in Norway, kids under 12 years old are not ranked by performance and thus everybody are winners. However, it is worth following these kids in the years to come, because there are a lot of potential future Pro riders here. This class had as much as 10 local riders from Hjellestad Jetski Club.
Hjellestad Jetski Club was the organiser of the championship, the biggest jetski club in Norway – although not that big in worldwide terms. The club has about 30 active riders who just love their sport and Jettribe Team Rider Stian Schjetlein is their big hero. About 100 volunteers signed up to make this championship the best Nordic Championship ever. The next target for the club is to organize a European Championship race or a Jetcross race.
For more information on last weekends event please go to:
http://www.nordicjetski.com
