ETA Ascon Star Group Company aims to popularise sport in the UAE
Dubai, UAE - Twice Guinness world record holder and international skydiver Mike Howard will participate at the World Hot Air Balloon Championship 2008, sponsored by Star Events, part of the $5 billion ETA Ascon Star Group. The one week high adrenalin event will be held at the St. Stefan airfield in Styria, Austria, from September 13 - 21, 2008.
Dubai-based pilot Mike, a British national has been flying for 25 years and will compete with more than 100 delegates from around the world. The event considered to be in the same league as the Olympics of balloonists, will see the best talent from Great Britain, USA, Japan, China, Austria, Czechoslovakia, France and other countries.
Before leaving for Austria, Mike Howard said, "We are very pleased to a part of the World Hot Air Balloon Championship and thanks to the sponsorship by the Star Events team of Dubai. With many nations around the world taking part in the eight-day event, it should prove to be an exciting and challenging event. Although the UAE doesn't officially have a team participating in the competition, we are confident in the future it will, with the growth of both private and commercial ballooning in Dubai and support of Star Events."
Hakim Al Bannay, Chief Executive Officer, Star Events, said, "Mike Howard is a dare devil hot air balloonist, who holds many Guinness World Records for his stunts up in the sky. We are proud to sponsor him at the International Hot Air Balloon Championship 2008, unofficially representing the UAE. We wish him luck and hope that his participation in the event will greatly contribute to popularizing the sport in the country, as well as in the region."
Howard already holds a series of records for performing stunts on balloons. He has featured in the Guinness World Records twice for the highest beam walk at 19000 ft in Michigan, USA
He also has a record for the highest ever cluster flight, where he relied on a cluster of ordinary toy helium balloons tied to a chair to hoist him up to 18,000ft and landed by bursting the balloons with an air pistol.
To have access to regular updates of the World Hot Air Balloon Championship in Austria, Mike is writing a regular diary and uploading photographs from the competition and this can be viewed by logging onto the website link www.starevents.net.
Star Events is a Dubai-based full service event management agency of the ETA Star Ascon Group, offering marketing solutions, encompassing events, promotion campaigns and ballooning activities.
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About ETA Ascon Star Group
ETA Ascon Star Group is a multinational and diversified group established in 1973 as a joint venture under the UAE's Abdulla Al Ghurair Group. Headquartered in Dubai, ETA Ascon Star Group has built an enviable reputation for quality, excellent service and cost-effective technological capability. The group's network encompasses 140 entities and associate offices in 22 countries and employs more than 68,000 people with consolidated sales in excess of US$ 5 billion.
Areas of expertise under the ETA Ascon Star Group umbrella include Contracting & Engineering, Trading, Shipping, Manufacturing and Assembly, Facility Management & Environmental, Automobile, Real Estate, Retail, Services, Travel & Leisure, Health Care, Aviation, Learning & Education, Insurance, Hospitality, Oil & Natural Gas. www.etaascon.com
For more information, please contact:
Rohini Rego, Charlene Anne
Finance, Corporate & Real Estate practice - Weber Shandwick MENA
Tel: + 971 4 3210 077
Fax: + 971 4 3211 711
Email: Rohini.rego@ws-mena.com / charlene.rodrigues@ws-mena.com
© Press Release 2008
