Presentation____________________________________________

Presentation

From September 18th to 21st Barcelona will become the capital of the equestrian world hosting the 97th International Show Jumping competition. The best eight national teams will compete at the CSIO Barcelona which will be the setting for the Samsung Super League with FEI Final.

The best riders of the international equestrian world will be at the Real Club de Polo de Barcelona , offering an attractive program of twelve classes including Longines Grand Prix , Queen's Cup and the Samsung Super League Final - Nations Cup. Four intense equestrian days with the best worldwide riders.

A Super League with the best show grounds...
	The Samsung Super League with FEI is the most important Team Show Jumping series in the world. It takes place at the most prestigious show venues on the international circuit: La Baule (France), Aachen (Germany), Rome (Italy), St.Gallen (Switzerland), Rotterdam (Holland), Hickstead (Great Britain), Dublin (Ireland) and in Barcelona (Spain) where the final will be staged.

... and the best teams

The 8 teams participating in the Samsung Super League with FEI were selected on the basis of results from the 2007 season. The competing nations are: Belgium, Ireland, Germany, Great Britain, the Netherlands, Sweden, Switzerland and USA. As host nation, Spain competes at the Final.

Longines, official partner and timekeeper of the CSIO Barcelona

Saint-Imier / Barcelona – Swiss watch brand Longines continues its involvement with equestrian sports, this year as official partner and timekeeper of the CSIO Barcelona, set to take place in Barcelona from 18th to 21st September 2008. As such, Longines will present the prestigious Gran Premio Longines, and will award its unique prize in recognition of elegance: the Longines Press Award for Elegance. A jury, drawn of seven journalists from the equestrian and sporting press coming from the 7 countries where Longines is official timekeeper, will elect the most elegant male and female riders at the CSIO Barcelona out of the top ten female and male riders having won the most points by achieving the best sporting results at the past six events. The winners will be awarded the annual prize at this season-ending competition in Barcelona and will receive a cheque for 20,000 Swiss francs, a trophy and a set of Longines watches. The magnificent scene of the CSIO Barcelona will also be the perfectly elegant platform for the launch of the Admiral watches from the Longines Sport Collection in Spain.

This year, Longines is celebrating eighty years’ involvement with show-jumping which dates back to its first involvement in 1926 at the Concours Hippique International Officiel de Genève. Eight decades later, having been present at over one hundred show-jumping events and been timekeeper for numerous competitions, Longines is proud to be a regular supporter of this equestrian discipline and to be present on every continent, reflecting the brand’s corporate principle of universality.

Longines is proud to take part in the CSIO Barcelona 2008 as official timekeeper and sponsor and to present its Longines Grand Prix.

Longines relaunches its prize for elegance under the new title The Longines Press Award for Elegance

The brand’s know-how with regard to precision and the beauty of its creations are to Longines watches what the sports award of the Grand Prix Longines and the prize for elegance are to the Longines Press Award for Elegance.

The prize will be awarded for the season 2008 at the CSIO Barcelona, which starts on 18 September 2008. Representatives of the equestrian press will choose the most elegant male and female riders during the Longines Grand Prix. At each event a male and a female rider has been chosen according to set criteria by a jury made up of members of the equestrian press. The male and female competitors who win the highest number of points over all 7 events will be presented with the Longines Press Award for Elegance in Barcelona.

Launched in 2000, this prize for elegance adds a breath of refinement to top-ranking competitions by putting the accent on a combination of qualities and skills involving the personality of the competitors, their charm, their charisma and the harmony between horse and rider. Just as Longines watches are a marriage of precision, technology and refinement, the Longines prize for elegance is awarded to the riders who best embody the brand’s values through their human qualities, sporting skill and understanding in relation to their mount.

If elegance is an attitude, it is at the same time a question of talent which will be decided through luck and merit in Barcelona.

Longines is a member of the Swatch Group Ltd, the world’s largest watchmaker, with 156 production centers in Switzerland and around the world.

http://www.longines.com