Longines, official timekeeper and data handler at the 43rd Artistic Gymnastics World Championships 2011 in Tokyo, awarded the Longines Prize for Elegance to the female gymnast Ana Porgras from Romania and the male gymnast Kohei Uchimura from Japan. This award decorates the athletes having demonstrated the most remarkable elegance in the course of the individual all-around finals. Furthermore, Longines presented the official watch of the event, The Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph.
All participants in the individual all-around finals were nominated for the Longines Prize for Elegance. The nominees had been evaluated according to a number of complementary criteria. In addition to technical considerations, each athlete’s performance has been judged with respect to emotional appeal, beauty, charm, charisma as well as grace and harmony of movement. The jury of the Longines Prize for Elegance brought together names like Bruno Grandi, president of the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG), Ariella Kaeslin, Longines Ambassador of Elegance and former Swiss gymnast, Christophe Savioz, Country Manager Swatch Group Japan and Walter von Känel, President of Longines.
On both days, the members of the jury decided unanimously of the winner. The Longines Prize for Elegance was presented in the form of a trophy created especially for Longines by the Swiss artist Jean-Pierre Gerber. Additionally, Ana Porgras received a Longines DolceVita in steel and rose gold with diamonds and Kohei Uchimura a model of The Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph as well as a cheque for US$ 5,000 each.
The Longines Column-Wheel Chronograph that Longines presented in Tokyo is made of stainless steel and the case houses an exclusive self-winding caliber with a blue column-wheel visible through the transparent back. This model displays a silvered dial with 13 indexes and offers the chronograph functions, central seconds sweep, 30-minutes and 12-hour counters.
