World Powerboat Championship: Curtis seals glory in powerboating season climax

Competition is intense just after the start of yesterday's Dubai Grand Prix, the final round of the 2003 Superfund Class 1 World Powerboat Championship as (left) Qatar, driven by the Italian Matteo Nicolini and Sheikh Hassan bin Jabor Al-Thani, of Qatar, tries to pressure Highlander, raced by the Italians Edoardo Pilli and Lamberto Leoni, while (right) the Australia-New Zealand combination of Bill Barry-Cotter and Peter McGrath moves ahead in the Australian boat Maritimo. Highlander finished second, Maritimo third and Qatar sixth in a race won by Steve Curtis, of Britain, and the Norwegian Bjorn Gjelsten, in Spirit of Norway. It was the Anglo-Norwegian pair's seventh victory out of eight races, yesterday's being cut short after 12 of the scheduled 18 laps because of a sandstorm blowing in off the Arabian Gulf. Their success added the Middle East Championship to an impressive haul of titles. They have won the Class 1 World, European and Pole Position Championships and have broken the record for the number of wins in a season.