The 2017 World Champion Yoshihide Muroya was back to his blistering best in Abu Dhabi today when he took the win in the Final 4 by a margin of just 0.003s – one of the closest in the sport’s history.

Muroya was due to fly the second run in the Final 4 but Nicolas Ivanoff, who was meant to fly first, had to retire from the Final 4 due to being unable to start his engine. The distraught Frenchman had to settle for fourth due to not being able to fly.

It was a spectacular sight in the Round of 8. Here's how it went down blow by blow...

Heat 8
Ivanoff v Chambliss
Ivanoff flew beautifully in his run, but it was slow and his time of 55.375s was one that Chambliss had easily beaten in earlier sessions. Chambliss was 0.384s ahead at the first split, but picked up a penalty for climbing in the gate at Gate 3 and added two seconds to his time. He was able to claw back a second in time but it wasn't enough to beat Ivanoff's time.

Martin Sonka set the fastest time of the Round of 14 and Michael Goulian wasn't far behind in a tense session, which saw Nicolas Ivanoff go through as the Fastest Loser. Here's how the Round of 14 panned out...

The season has started with a bang. The top three from last year are through to the Round of 8. This is going to be one amazing round. Here's how the heats will play out...