Saturday, Oct 12, 2013

Dubai: The teams involved in the UIM Skydive Dubai XCAT World Series will head east for the sixth round of the series at Ningbo’s Meishan Bay in China from November 8-10.

Current series leaders Fazza will be hoping for a smooth ride on the flat waters in China. The duo of Arif Al Zaffein and Mohammad Al Marri hold the lead on 1,201 points but, having not claimed a race win since January in Abu Dhabi, they will be keen to return to the top of the podium to consolidate that lead.

A delegation from the World Professional Powerboating Association (WPPA) — the organisers and promoters of the series — travelled to Ningbo last week to finalise preparations ahead of next month’s event

The group — made up of WPPA Vice President Dr Khalid Al Zahed, WPPA Secretary General Sid Besalah, Managing Director of Victory Team Al Zaffein, Operations Director Pasquale Sesana and Sports Director Sebastiano Pellicchia — were received by Hua Wei, President of the Organising Committee, Beilun District Mayor and President of the Meishan Bonded Port Committee.

A welcome function was followed by a visit to the event site, where the group witnessed the ground work that the municipality of Ningbo, together with the local organising committee, have already done to prepare the venue for the XCAT event.

This was followed by a trip to one of the city’s shopping malls for the nomination of Miss XCAT — an initiative by the local organisers involving the community, which will see 14 women selected as Miss XCATs to carry the flags of the participating teams in November.

“We are very excited to be taking the series to China for the first time,” Bensalah said.

“We had two wonderfully successful races in Italy in September — our first venture outside the UAE — and this event in China is a further important step in the series’ global expansion.

“The Ningbo Binhai municipality and the Local Organising Committee have put in a great deal of work in order to make this possible and we look forward to partnering with them in seeing this work come to fruition in November.”

Located in Zhejiang province on the east coast, Ningbo is one of China’s oldest cities and it boasts the world’s second largest port. It is second only to Shanghai, which is located 220km to the north.

After China, the XCAT World Series will conclude with races in Fujairah and Dubai in December.

By Alaric Gomes Senior Reporter

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