TWO men from Pembrokeshire incredibly finished fifth while representing Great Britain in Malta at the P750 Thundercat UIM World Powerboat Championships.

Neyland's Simon Harding, a former jockey, was competing in his second world championships, while former moto-cross rider Kurt Croft from Pembroke was in his first, handling some tough racing conditions which saw several boats flipping in the air or retiring for other reasons.

“This was an amazing result,” said Harding of 51 Racing. “It pushed man and machine to the limits, but the team managed a great result of third in class.

“We drove 1850 miles to get to Malta. We were entered into the class for standard engines, but because of the temperature of 34 degrees and water temperature of 24 degrees we decided to move up a class to professional engines to gain extra power.

“The first day of racing was surf discipline. There was not much surf but the team came in 5th in the final after four heats to qualify.

“The next discipline was long haul with one race covering 68 miles. The conditions were very rough, racing out of Mellieha Bay around to St Paul's Bay and back over six laps.

“It was one of the hardest races we have ever been in with three boats flipping and four retirements, so we were delighted to finish third.

“The last discipline was circuits and the team managed to keep going to finish sixth despite the motor suffering a few problems.

“When they added up all the results the team is now ranked fifth best in the world. All this would not be possible with out the support of our sponsors sop it's a massive thank you to Pembrokeshire's Syncro Motor Factors, Percolated Design and Station Self Drive, as well as News Transport, Bedford, Bworx Ltd, Italy, and Steel Developments, London.”