During the official ceremony held this week in Rome, the C.O.N.I. (Italian Olympic Committee) awarded the 2017 V1 Offshore World Champion Maurizio Schepici with the coveted Gold Medal for Athletic Merits.

Schepici, former 2010 Endurance class B World Champion, received the award “as a well-deserved recognition of the world’s competitive achievements in 2017″

He will be campaigning his Seatek powered Metamarine hull in the UKOPRA International series to be held over 3 events in Britain next year.

He told Powerboat Racing World:

I took my boat over to England last month, it is now stored on the South Coast for the winter, then I look forward to racing at Poole, Guernsey and Cowes next summer.

There will be good competition over there such as Drew Langdon’s Silverline and Richard Carr’s Fortitudo Cougar.

He concluded:

Italian offshore racers have a very good record of racing in Britain and I intend to keep up that tradition!