Rashed Al Qamzi and Rashed Al Tayer are well poised to give Team UAE victory in the UIM H2O Bund Holding Group Nations Cup for a record fourth time after the opening racing encounters on Shanghai’s Dishui Lake.

Al Qamzi beat Australia’s Brock Cohen in a gripping Match Race final and Al Tayer was eliminated by his team-mate in the quarters on Wednesday.

Rookie Cohen faced Al Qamzi in the Match Race final for the gold medal and the Emirati made a superb start in heat one to take a one-nil lead. The Team UAE driver maintained his composure to secure a second win and his first-ever Match Race victory at the UIM H2O Nations Cup.

With points awarded for each racing discipline over two days, Team Russia are just one point behind Team UAE, courtesy of having two drivers in the last four of the Match Races.

Andrey Panyushkin faced Roman Vandyshev in the contest to determine third place and the final position on the podium, with Panyushkin benefiting from his team-mate’s disqualification in heat one to snatch third place, 2-0.

Al Tayer and Al Qamzi were drawn together in their quarter-final heat and Al Qamzi took advantage of a mistake by his team-mate in heat two to reach the semis where he met pole position winner Vandyshev of Team Russia.

Al Qamzi was deemed to have jump-started the opening heat and this handed a 1-0 lead to Vandyshev in the semi-final. The Russian made a good start in heat two, but Al Qamzi produced a solid display of boat control to level with victory in heat two and won the decider to book his place in the final.

Cohen lined up with Panyushkin in the first of the Match Race semi-finals. The Russian won heat one, but was edged out of a thrilling second heat by Cohen to force a decider, which was won by the Russian. But Panyushkin was disqualified for jumping the start and Cohen was handed his place in the final.

“This was a superb start to the UIM H2O Nations Cup by Team UAE and perfect foundations to build on for the two races on Thursday,” said Salem Al-Romaithi, assistant GM of the Abu Dhabi International Marine Sports Club.