Ten years has a special significance, it means fulfillment, and it represents a new beginning. It has been exactly 10 years since the Longines Global Equestrian Championships made its debut in Shanghai in 2014, and the event is about to usher in a new chapter.
On the afternoon of May 2, the 2024 Shanghai Longines Global Equestrian Championships held a press conference and a China-Europe horse industry exchange seminar.
In the next three days, the world's highest-level five-star equestrian event will kick off at the Shanghai Jiushi International Equestrian Center. Shanghai will also become the only city in China that integrates permanent professional equestrian venues and international top equestrian events.
"Why can Shanghai equestrian develop so fast? In addition to the relatively high level of social development, there is also the attention of the government and the urban spirit of embracing all rivers. At the seminar, Cheng Keqiang, director of the Shanghai Equestrian Sports Management Center, was looking forward to the future of the event and the new venue.
"I hope that this equestrian center can become a new benchmark and a new channel for the development of equestrian in Shanghai. ”
The horses are in place and the riders are looking forward to the new racetrack
Equestrian is the only Olympic sport that requires the cooperation of man and horse. Because of this, the transportation, quarantine and management of horses is even more important than the management of riders in every equestrian competition.
According to The Paper (www.thepaper.cn), all 73 horses in the event departed from the Netherlands in two batches, transported to Liège Airport in Belgium, and then took Qatar Airways, transited in Doha and finally flew to Shanghai for several days of adaptation and training.
Top riders from all over the world have settled in Shanghai with their horses and are waiting for the race to begin.
In this lineup, the world's No. 1, Olympic champion, double World Championships champion, European Championship team champion, World Cup Finals champion, Sweden's well-known rider Henrik von Ekman will lead many masters to create good results in Shanghai.
On the Chinese side, Olympic rider Zhang Xingjia, world champion Wang Yunjing and Zheng Wenjie will once again compete at the Longines World Equestrian Championships in Shanghai.
In addition, at the new International Equestrian Center, Pang Qinyu, China's first rider to join the Global Team Championship and a contracted rider of Jiushi Sports, will also compete for the first time.
Born in 2000, Pang Qinyu has already made many achievements in the field of equestrianism, winning the second place in the 120 class of the Beijing Longines Bird's Nest Masters in 2017, the team championship in Group 115 of the 2018 FEI Show Jumping World Cup China League (Chengdu), and the third place in Group A of the 2nd National Youth Games in 2019. In 2021, Pang Qinyu was also selected for the U21 obstacle course of the national youth equestrian team.
"I've been to venues in many countries and it's great to be able to compete in a permanent arena in China, so I'm going to make this a stop my start to a five-star event. At the seminar, Pang Qinyu was looking forward to his debut at the highest level.
"I will start today and strive to become one of the best riders in Asia before the 2028 Olympics. ”
Ten years of hard work to continue to promote the development of equestrianism
From 2014 when it was in the temporary arena under the China Art Palace, to being able to witness Chinese riders and international masters competing in a permanent equestrian venue, the Longines Global Equestrian Championships in Shanghai has also witnessed the growth of equestrian and the horse industry in China.
At the China-Europe Equine Industry Exchange Seminar with the theme of "Ten Years of Horse Leap: Retrospect and Prospects", Mark Dennis, Race Director of the Longines Global Equestrian Championships, shared the changes and developments of the competition in the past ten years.
Cheng Keqiang, Director of the Shanghai Equestrian Sports Management Center, talked about his thoughts on the past, present and future development of equestrian sports in Shanghai.
In addition, Olympic rider Li Yaofeng, Fan Yifei, the chief architect of Shanghai Jiushi International Equestrian Center, and Zhang Jiaheng, general manager of Shanghai Jiushi International Equestrian Center, also shared and discussed the inheritance of equestrian sports, poetic equestrian valley, and the operation and development of Shanghai Jiushi International Equestrian Center.
In the review and outlook session, several guests combined their personal experiences to talk about the prospects and future of this event and the development of equestrian in China.
"China's equine quarantine is very different from Europe's equine quarantine in the past, and it is a major breakthrough to be able to establish a disease-free zone through this decade of competition. Huang Ming, general manager of Shanghai Jiushi Sports Event Operation Management Co., Ltd., mentioned the quarantine experience accumulated by the event.
"In this process, we hope to let the world see the development of equestrian in Shanghai and China, and our goal is to create a more complete event system through the accumulation of this event, including the construction of a youth equestrian event system, so that young riders with excellent results can go to more professional stables for training and exchange with foreign riders. ”
As one of the first two batches of riders in Shanghai Equestrian, Lu Wei, Secretary General of the Shanghai Equestrian Association, lamented that the ten years of the Global Equestrian Championships in China are the decade with the fastest development of equestrianism in China.
"At that time, people didn't understand the difference between speed racing and equestrianism, but now equestrian sports can provide people with emotional value and other needs beyond competition, and among them is the effort and role of events. ”
As Cheng Keqiang said, "I hope that this equestrian center can become a new channel for the development of equestrian in Shanghai, with the help of this event to help the development of equestrianism and the formation of the event system, and make greater contributions to Shanghai becoming a world-famous sports city." ”