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Aachen, 15. November 2005

World Equestrian Games Aachen 2006 also on Chinese Television
Michael Mronz presently in Beijing for talks - enormous media interest

When the Chinese turn on their televisions next year, they will see quite an image: athletes with four-legged animals who ride in the Aachen Soers. Michael Mronz is sure the World Equestrian Games in seven disciplines from 20 August to 3 September "will open the doors to Asia" for the Aachen-Laurensberger Rennverein (ALRV). The Managing Director of the Aachener Reitturnier GmbH is presently in Beijing for talks - and received a lot of media attention. Around 60 journalists and six camera teams came to the press conference in the Chinese capital, where Mronz was campaigning for Aachen and the World Equestrian Games. Mronz is also negotiating the WEG TV rights in Asia.
Careful estimations reckon that presently there are around 350 million televisions in China, therefore 95 per cent of the upwardly mobile middle class will be reached.
"The television scene does not differ that much in comparison with Germany,' says Mronz. There are two large and around a thousand small broadcasters already in existence.
And the Chinese are catching up in enthusiasm for equestrian sport too. Not least because of the Olympic Summer Games, which are to be held in 2008 in Beijing, although the equestrian sports will be staged in Hong Kong. On top of that, recently the first large equestrian centre was opened with German support and in the presence of Ludger Beerbaum. Training conditions have become more professional over the past years and Chinese athletes could therefore be expected among the international equestrian elite very soon and experience the competitions themselves in the Aachen Soers instead of on television. This is where, annually the reknowned World Equestrian Festival, the CHIO Aachen, is staged as well.

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