| Date: |
| 10-Jul-03 |
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| Place: |
| Rasa Sayang Resort |
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| Organizer: |
| Yamaha Motor Co., Ltd. |
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| Country: |
| Malaysia |
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| Participants Watching the Timed Challenge |
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| The Jack Ellison Riding School |
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| Timed Challenge |
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| Championship Winner Taned Satienphan and Andy Koide of Yamaha |
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Penang is one of Malaysia's foremost commercial cities as well as an internationally renowned sightseeing area. Batu Ferringhi located on the north side of the island, is a resort area featuring white sand beaches in front of luxury hotels. On July 10, the beach in front of one of these hotels, the Rasa Sayang Resort, became the site of the S1 Worldwide competition for Yamaha agents in Southeast Asia. Despite the prevailing bad weather, the weather on the day of the event was clear and sunny, and participants competed with enthusiasm that generated as much heat as the tropical climate itself.
The WaveRunner used for this event was the GP800R, which is designed especially for slalom courses. A superb balance has been achieved between the body and engine, promising extremely smooth handling even on tight slalom courses.
Jack and Deon Ellison of H2O Entertainment of Australia, known for its Wave Day Event, provided strong support for event planning and operation. Some participants had never ridden a WaveRunner before, but there was no need for worry. After hearing a WaveRunner riding lecture by Jack Ellison and running the course several times, all of the participants were making their way smoothly through the slaloms, and you would never guess that any of them were WaveRunner beginners.
After the first heat, Kenji Oishi exhibited local Malaysian pride with a record finish of 25.29 seconds. In second place at 26.47 seconds was Taned Satienphan, the representative from Thailand, who also uses a WaveRunner privately. In third place at a close 27.79 seconds was Jonathan Pak of Singapore, showing the result of skills honed on the Blaster and Super Jet. Ronald Leman of Indonesia, also a WaveRunner user, undertook the challenge of the slalom course. Used to making long-distance touring runs between islands, Ronald may have found the slalom course somewhat tight and narrow.
The top three riders competed in a final heat, with Taned Satienphan of Thailand finishing as the champion of the event. Taned happily, and humbly, received the prize of a special duffel bag from Yamaha Motor General Manager Andy Koide. A "lucky drawing" was held to wrap up the event, with Kan Bright Pan of Malaysia receiving a special waist pouch, making him the envy of the other participants. Special thanks also go to Kan and his colleague Ong for their considerable effort in making this event possible.
All of the participating agents seemed to thoroughly enjoy the S1 time trials. It is now their turn to organizer similar events for the customers in their respective countries. |
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