Riders taking part in this weekend’s UIM-ABP Endurance World Championship on Sumatra’s spectacular Lake Toba attended an official briefing at the event’s base camp at Pangururan on Samosir Island on Tuesday afternoon.

Racing under the ‘United Spirit of Lake Toba’ banner, 22 competitors from 12 nations are registered to take the start of the opening race of the Lake Toba Challenge for the Karo Cup near the village of Tongging on Wednesday morning.

“Twenty racers, 12 nations and four regencies for the first Endurance World Championship here in Indonesia is a very good start,” said Nicoló di San Germano, Founder of H2O Racing and Aquabike Promotion. “This concept began in February during the F1H2O event that we organised on Lake Toba.

“Mr. Luhut (Luhut Binsar Pandjaitan) and other officials here in Indonesia told us they wanted to do something for the whole lake and the four regencies to unify those four regencies. That’s when the idea of organising an endurance race was born. We are so happy to be here and we are grateful to the local promoter InJourney for the fantastic job they have done. This is a new format for us to organise a week of aquabike racing and we look forward to the future of this.”

InJourney spokesman Ricky Wirjan added: “On behalf of the people of Indonesia and InJourney, we welcome all our international visitors. Everyone who is participating is also contributing to promoting tourism and the sport in Indonesia, especially in north Sumatra.”

Tomorrow’s Karo Cup will be contested over a pair of 35-minute races, starting at 11.30hrs and 14.00hrs, on a 3.9km circuit. Both races will earn points towards the Karo Cup, as will the two races on Thursday and Friday for the subsequent Dairi and Samosir Cups.

Added together, along with the points allocated by race officials from the transfers, the three days of action will determine the outcome of the Grand Prix and the Endurance Championship on Friday afternoon.