With just two weeks to go before the start of the Global Champions Tour in Doha (March 17-19), at the Qatar Equestrian Federation at Al Rayyan, preparations are entering the final stages of planning for one of the most widely-viewed show jumping sporting events in the world.
It’s often hard to fully appreciate the magnitude of a major sporting event and its economic impact on a city: hundreds of people choreographed to near perfection to support the staging of the event and millions of spectators worldwide via Eurosport and Al Jazeera television.
The Global Champions Tour Sports Director, Marco Danese, who over the last few weeks has been personally overseeing all of the preparations in Doha, has been busy dealing with all different aspects of the operations. Bringing to Doha the most expensive horses and the most renowned international riders, their grooms, staff and infrastructure from around the world to the Global Champions Tour’s first leg of the tour, requires extensive planning and logistical coordination to mitigate the risk and to make sure that everything is in perfect order to go.
Marco Danese, 51, from Italy, is at his first year in this role. “You can do a lot of advanced planning and repetition of the process – he commented – but at the end of the day because of the size and magnitude of the event, logistically it becomes more challenging when you are in another country and if you have language barriers, that has its own implications.”
The Global Champions Tour has been working closely with the Qatar Equestrian Federation’s President Rashid Al Mansoori who has been instrumental in bridging the Qatari community and the Global Champions Tour logistical co-ordination.
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As the event nears, the pressure is on. “Planning and advance activities are critically important, but there’s no doubt that the closer we get to the event, there will be a lot of fine tuning, a lot of check and balancing of the plans,” Danese said. “A small team has been in Doha for a month now and prior to that at least once a month for six months we have been regularly visiting Doha to set the basis for the event. We have embedded our processes within the Qatari business community and working closely with a Doha based marketing firm and other media agents. Support crew and many local staff are employed to make sure that the event runs to perfection.”
“The event marketing activities in Doha have been under way for some months and more recently promotional activities have been instigated in the shopping malls and across a variety of media platforms.”
“My colleague Anne Botella manages the logistics here in Doha and works very closely with our staff who are based in Valkenswaard, and liaises with the Qatar Equestrian Federation.” He commented on the global operations. “We also contract staff and businesses from a variety of countries. The arena surface is being prepared by Bart Poels from Belgium, the digital and graphic services provided by the Dutch firm Sports Computer Graphics, and the broadcasting production is being managed by Eurosport (Worldwide), Eyeworks (The Netherlands) and Al Jazeera (Middle East).”
Well know international British commentator Steven Wilde will be the official voice in Doha, with Arabic commentator Nabila Al-Ali from Kuwait providing details for the local spectators. Frederik de Backer from Belgium will provide the commentary for the live streaming that will be broadcasted on the Global Champions Tour official website (www.globalchampionstour.com) with graphical and technical support from German Knut Schmidt.
The designated official veterinarian appointed by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) is Italian Alessandro Centinaio and Willem Verhaeghe from Belgium who will fly with the horses and will be in attendance as the treating vet until the horses arrive back in Europe post event. Italian Stefano Grasso joins the Global Champions Tour for the 2011 season as the official photographer; while in the key role of course designer there will be, for the first time acting in Doha, German Frank Rothenberger who will design the courses with the support of Belgian designers Luc Musette and Frank van Humbeeck.
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All the equipment necessary to create the best environment for this internationally renowned show jumping event has been shipped into Qatar from Europe. A cargo container left Europe in mid January for Doha filled with a full set of show jumping fences and associated equipment. Audio equipment, LED Screen, Global Champions Tour merchandise, flowers and other last minute item requirements will also be sent on the same plane as the horses.
It is not just the staff and equipment that create logistical work. The top athletes, from across 17 different nations, have been organized with flights, accommodation, transfers and visas all provided by the Global Champions Tour. Ninety horses and their grooms will be flown on two flights which will leave Liege, Belgium on the 12th and 13th of March.
The best riders and horses transcend on Doha for the first round of the 2011 Global Champions Tour aiming for some of the €475,000 on offer for the Global Champions Tour Doha Grand Prix. Riders will also be making a start on point gathering in an attempt to top the Global Champions Tour ranking and win the ultimate title and prize pool by the final round of the series which plays out in Abu Dhabi from 10th to the 12th of November in 2011.
The key event of the program is the Global Champions Tour Grand Prix which takes place on Saturday 19th March at 18.45pm (CET) with live television coverage via Eurosport and the Middle East broadcasters ‘Al Jazeera’. Live Streaming of the Global Champions Tour 5* events will be available to view on the dedicated website www.globalchampionstour.com
Once the Global Champions Tour concludes in Doha, it packs up and moves to Valencia in Spain from (May 6-8) partnering with event organiser ‘Oxer Sport Ltd’ to deliver the second leg of the ten round series which this year will be crossing nine countries.
