China Balloon Tournament (CBT), which is approved by National General Administration of Sport and held by Aero Sports Federation of China (ASFC), will hold its five-stage races from September, 2005 to June, 2006. The first stage will formally open from September 24th to 28th , 2005, in Beijing.
China Balloon Tournament is one of the official competitions ranked in the competition plan of National General Administration of Sport. As an innovative tournament, CBT is promoted by ASFC based on years of experience in holding balloon tournaments. CBT is different from some traditional balloon tournaments in teams, competition system as well as management model. In some traditional balloon competitions, the candidates were limited to enter the competitions in single; however, CBT allows the companies to enter in teams, and each team consists of a pilot, an assistant pilot and a representative of the company. Each participating company will draw a lot to decide the pilot of their own team. All together there are eleven teams competing in this tournament, including ten participating company teams and one sponsor team. CBT is an elite competition in balloon games. All the pilots participating in this tournament are carefully selected by ASFC according to their records in different competitions of recent years, and they are generally acknowledged to be master pilots with rich flight experience and multi-quality. Besides, ASFC will also keep making replacement and supplement to the list of candidates according to the latest ranking of the pilots, in order to make sure that the tournament is one of the top balloon competitions in China. CBT adopts the stage racing model, with ranking and awarding in each stage and a general ranking and awarding after accumulating the points of each stage.
The sponsor of this tournament is Beijing Zhongkun Investment Group, which has twice cooperated with ASFC to hold the International Balloon Festival in South Xinjiang. The Balloon Festival not only gave impetus to the development of the tourism in South Xinjiang but also brought the brand of Zhongkun to the hearts of the people, which has been a powerful proof of win-win result gained by combining the concept of the industry with the balloon culture.
The first stage of the tournament is in Beijing, where there will be a grand gala parade and an opening ceremony on September 24th and 25th, in Yanqing County. At that time, there will be a balloon show consisting of 20 balloons, demonstrating the charm of balloon culture. Yanqing County is abundant in tourism resources and suitable for outdoor sports such as balloon games. The support of the local government and the related facilities they provide are also very important guarantees of the success of the tournament. The main sports field of the tournament is Gui Chuan Square of Yanqing County, where the teams will compete in events such as “Hunting Dog Catch the Hare”, “Fly to the Main Field” and so on. Besides the competition, there will also be Balloon Carnival and Flame Parade at night, drawing attention of personalities of various circles and promoting the exploitation of local tourism resource and economic development. The second stage of the tournament will be held from October 22nd to 27th, in Nan Tong, Jiangsu Province.
CBT is a competition consulting the developing model of balloon competitions in foreign countries, combining with the recent flourishing development of balloon games in China as well as the general demands of the industries in the new media value, and conforming to the international developing trend of ballooning. The development of CBT is an important attempt to popularize the sport and push it into the market. The eleven teams of this tournament are industries with foresight and sagacity, who will surely combine their profound brand culture with the development of China’s ballooning competitions, making greater achievement in the future.
