More than 2,000 Entries Received for Jumping Fence Design Competition

A total of 2,093 entries were received for the Jumping Fence Design Competition by the Equestrian Events (Hong Kong) of the Games of the XXIX Olympiad Company Limited (The Equestrian Company), a spokesman for the company said today (March 13).

Most of the entries â€“ 1,740 â€“ were for the Junior Category (for participants under 16), while 270 entries were for the Senior Category (for participants aged 16 or above) and 83 for the Professional Categories (for practicing designers as well as teachers and students of design academies).

Director of Marketing and Promotion of The Equestrian Company, Mrs. Nancy Pang, said the company was very pleased with the enthusiastic response from the community, especially from the primary and secondary schools.

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â€œOne of the main objectives in organizing this competition is to encourage students to explore what the Olympics and the equestrian sport are, to examine Chinese culture and the Hong Kong identity, and to exercise their visual creativity.”

At a short-listing session today, a total of 60 entries â€“ 30 for the Junior section and 15 each for the other two categories – were selected for the final round of judging based on the criteria of originality and adherence to topic/theme. The results will be announced at a special ceremony on April 1st.

The 60 entries picked will go on display on March 27th to commemorate the 500-day countdown to the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

â€œI am very impressed by the creativity of a lot of the entries. As a result, the judging process was highly inspiring and I enjoyed every second of it,” President of the Hong Kong Institute of Architects Dr. Ronald Lu said. He was one of the eight judges in today’s short-listing session.

Another judge, Chairman of the Hong Kong Designers Association, Eddy Yu, shared Dr. Lu’s view.

â€œThe entries represented a wide spectrum of concepts and implementation methods with the participants ranging from design novices to seasoned professionals,” Mr. Yu said. “While the standards of the designs differ, one thing is common â€“ the passion for creative expression is evident in the vast majority of the entries and so is the seriousness of execution. Each design came with a short description of the design concept, and I truly appreciate the efforts of the participants.”

The final judging will take place at a later date and the winning entries will be used as a source of reference in the design of some of the actual fences to be used in the 2008 Olympic Equestrian Event in Hong Kong.

While most of the entries were from Hong Kong and the Mainland, some came from countries such as the Netherlands, Turkey, South Africa, Belgium, Italy and Korea, a spokesman for The Equestrian Company said.