Powerboating: The 7th UIM Awards Ceremony

Powerboating hosted the 7th UIM Awards Ceremony, in the Salle des Etoiles in Montecarlo. More than 400 celebrities from sport, music and media sectors attended the event during which 64 champion pilots from around the globe received achievement awards.

In recent years, powerboating has expanding globally and is now an ever-growing popular discipline. Awards were given to athletes from Russia, Italy, Spain, Switzerland, Canada, Estonia, Hungary, France, South Africa, Great Britain, Germany, Croatia, Kuwait, UAE, Sweden, USA and Slovakia.

The President of UIM, Raffaele Chiulli, said “The presence of athletes from all over the world at the event, which reached the seventh edition this year, shows how powerboating is nowadays a global sport, which grows bigger and bigger every year thanks to the high number of young people who love the sea, exactly like us. I’m very proud of celebrating such a high number of champions, a pride that I share with many other sport directors from all over the world. Today, we also celebrated two very important people in the history of sport: Klaus Dibiasi and Renato Molinari, who should be an inspiration for the sport values and a clear example of loyalty and energy, an incitement for the new generations”.

Klaus Dibiasi has been one of the main protagonists of Italian and global history of diving having won three gold medals at the 1968 Mexico City Summer Olympics, 1972 Monaco Summer Olympics and 1976 Montreal Summer Olympics, where he was the standard bearer for the Italian team.

Dibiasi is the only athlete to have won three Olympic Games in a row, as well as two silver medals. He also won two World Championships, two European Championships and two Mediterranean Games. Since ending his career in sport competitions, he has been working as a trainer for the Olympic team in the Moscow Summer Games in 1980, Los Angeles 1984, Seoul 1988 and Atlanta 1996.

Renato Molinari is a powerboating legend with a fine palmares of awards winning the Rouen 24 hours Race twice, the Paris 6 hours Race,and the Parker 9 hours Race twice.  He was awarded the “Chevron Sportsman of the Year” award five times in his career as well as numerous achievements in powerboat championships throughout his career.

In 1985 he became General Manager of the Nordica Team together with Woods and Vidoli in Germany. That year he was back on a Cat designed by himself, called Falcon 46. In 1986 he was nominated Technical Director of Formula 1, 2 and 3. and in May of that year he won the fourth Monaco Race as a global challenge, with his own Falcon 46 teaming up with Bodega.

Awards were given to the following powerboating athletes:

Giuseppe Schiano Di Cola, Federico Montanari and Antonio Schiano Di Cola from Italy for the 2015 World Championship

Offshore Class V1, Gary Ballough and John Tomlinson from USA for the 2015 World Championship

Offshore Class 1 Arif Al Zaffain and Nadir Bin Hendi  from UAE for the 2015 World Championship

Offshore XCAT. For Aquabike: Jennifer Menard from France and Nellie Ortendahl from Sweden for the  2015 World Ranking Aquabike Class Pro - Ski Ladies GP1,  Francesi Mickeal Poret and Jeremy Poret 2015 World Ranking - Aquabike Class Pro Ski Division GP1, Roberto Mariani from Italy and Rok Florjancic and Nac Florjancic from Croatia for the 2015 World Ranking - Aquabike Class Pro - Freestyle, Jeremy Perez, Dider Chabert and Christophe Agostinho from France for the 2015 World Ranking - Aquabike Class Pro - Runabout GP1., Philippe Chiappe from France for the 2015 World Champion - Formula 1 in China.

About the Union Internationale Motonautique

The UIM is the world governing body for all powerboating activities. It is fully recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and is a member of the Association of the IOC Recognized International Sports Federations (ARISF) and of SportAccord for whom the UIM President serves respectively as President and Vice President.

The UIM has almost 60 affiliated national federations. Circuit, offshore, pleasure navigation and aquabike are among the main disciplines. The UIM has signed a cooperation agreement with the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) to further its range of environmental initiatives, share expertise and work together for “greening” the sport. 

Tél. +377 92 05 25 22 / Fax +377 92 05 04 60 / Email: uim@uimpowerboating.com