Hundreds throng River Krishna to witness boat racing

Vijayawada: Several hundreds of people thronged the Punnami Ghat on the north bank of River Krishna here on Saturday to witness the racing boats at break-neck speed, a once in-a-while chance they would never get unless they visit foreign countries to see such extravaganza. Nine teams — one each from Australia, Germany and China and two each from United Arab Emirates (UAE), Great Britain and France—participated in the free trial runs since morning on Saturday. In both the laps, the Australia team led by Mihaldinecz Rudolf led the trial runs with its best lap of 56.39 seconds in the first trial run and improved its timing to 56.03 seconds in the second one. 

Jelf Benjamin-led Team Amaravati from Great Britain secured fifth place in the first run while it bettered its performance in the second run securing the second place with its best lap timing of 56.94 seconds in the second run. Al Fahim Ahmad-led Victory Team from UAE though secured second place in the first trial run slipped to fifth place in the second trial run with the best lap timing of 57.31 seconds. Likewise, F1 Atlantic Team from Great Britain led by Whittle Sam consistently placed itself in the third place in both the first and second trial runs with the best lap timing of 57.42 and 57.14 seconds respectively.

Emirates Racing Team from France led by Chiappe Tom though secured fourth place in the first trial run (57.46) slipped to fifth place in the second run (57.40). Stilz Max-led Blaze Performance team from Germany maintained its 7th place in both the trial runs with the best lap timing of 58.17 seconds. Maverick F1 from France led by Broutechoux Camile and CTIC F1 Shenzen China Team led by Wij Bingchen have been consistent in the 8th and 9th places respectively in both the trial runs. Every time the speed boats went past them, the crowd erupted in joy cheering the boat riders.