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Sports / Marine Sports

UIM Nations Cup to kick off today in Qatar

Published: 10 Mar 2015 - 12:56 am | Last Updated: 16 Jan 2022 - 07:16 pm

Team UAE and Team Qatar will go head to head in the UIM Nations Cup in Doha Bay this week.

DOHA: Team UAE will join racers from Qatar, Belarus, Russia, Germany, Italy and Saudi Arabia at this week’s UIM Nations Cup World Series races on Doha Bay.
Practice was permitted on the Doha Bay course yesterday, but the meat of the action gets underway with match races today and the all-important pair of sprint races will be staged tomorrow afternoon.
The UIM Nations Cup World Series is organised by H2O Racing and is a fitting curtain raiser for this weekend’s Grand Prix of Qatar, round one of the UIM F1 H20 World Championship, which will take centre stage on Friday and Saturday.
Team Belarus pipped Team Italy by a single point to success in a weather-interrupted UIM Nations Cup in Qatar last March in the absence of Team UAE. Team Malaysia edged Team Qatar out of third place. Rashid Al Qemzi won both the sprint races at the UIM Nations Cup race meeting in Abu Dhabi two years ago and the Emirati will be hoping that he and Rashed Al-Remeithi can build upon that success and win this year’s trophy on Doha Bay when they represent Tem UAE.  
It will not be easy, with impressive UIM F-4S Trophy racer Mike Szymura lining up for Team Germany and the experienced local driver Khalid Abdullah Al Kuwari joining Mohammed Al Obaidly in Team Qatar.
Team Saudi Arabia also makes a welcome return to UIM Nations Cup action with Nasem Mohammed Al Kedawi and Ahmed Saud Abdulaziz representing the Kingdom in Qatar.
“We have exciting plans at Team Abu Dhabi this season and it would be the perfect way to get our season of single-seater racing off to a winning start,” said Al Qemzi.  
“The Nations Cup is a superb format and an excellent way to bring the countries together to race against each other in similar boats with similar power and performance.”
The UIM Nations Cup boats weigh around 455kg, use Dewald propellers and were designed and built through promoter H2O Racing. All the boats are powered by Mercury Optimax 200XS SST engines that develop around 220hp at 8,000rpm. This gives them a 0-100km/h time across the water of less than five seconds and a top speed of over 200 km/h.
Team UAE runs under the auspices of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club (ADIMSC).
Salem Al Romaithi acts as the team head and works alongside new team manager and 10-time UIM F1 H20 World Champion Guido Cappellini.
The Peninsula