Del Rosario makes it third in Thailand Jetski national tour

YASOTHON, Thailand — The country’s top jetski rider Paul del Rosario survived the challenge of four grueling races to capture third place honors recently in the third leg of the 2006 Thailand National Tour here.

It was the toughest race Del Rosario encountered so far in his racing career. The racetrack was short and fast, about half the size of the local course in Subic, and had to deal with the pesky backmarkers midway the race.

Carrying the colors of Team Flamingo owned by Henry Knauf, he finished third overall behind Thai world champions Ekchon Kingchansil and Chaovalit Cucharoon who ended as champion and runner-up, respectively.

"It was really hard since you had to deal with limited movements on the course which really pushed the riders’ versatility, strategy and skills to the limit no matter how powerful your boat is. And one slight miscalculation could already spell disaster," said Del Rosario, who’s backed up by Petron Corp., Manila Cordage, Stoked Inc, Playboy Apparel, Quakeysense Wetsuits of Japan, and Networx Jetsports.

With his feat, he now moved up overall third in the quest for the overall title of the series.

"That made up for my disappointing finishes in the past two legs," he added while recalling the bad crash with a Japanese rider that left him with a severe fiberglass damage in the first leg in Phuket.

In the second round in Chonburi, he was running a consistent third and second places in the first two heats when he suffered his biggest wipeout on the third and final heat. He slammed into a big wave sending him flying off the air before his craft stood on its nose upright on the water.

Despite little time for rest and practice after a three-hour plane ride and another seven-hour drive to Yasothon, Del Rosario had a good start as he checked in second after passing Chaovalit at the backstretch with barely three laps to go.

Heat 2, however, was frustratring. Del Rosario stuck quite close by a jetski length behind Chaovalit and Ekchon when lapped riders got in their way. As Chaovalit managed to pass the backmarker at the right outside portion of the stretch, he was thinking of exploiting the lapped riders to take a plunge into the lead.