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[Photo: Students Travis Ho (left) and Desmond Sim won big for their graciousness and the respect they showed fellow competitors at the Red Bull Paper Wings competition.]
By HELMI YUSOF
SALZBURG, Austria - Singapore competitors may not have been the best in the world, but they certainly knew how to treat the game and their opponents with respect and dignity.
That was the conclusion of the jury at Red Bull Paper Wings World Finals, as it singled out Singaporeans Travis Ho and Desmond Sim during an award ceremony last Saturday and presented them with a trophy for sportsmanship.
Mr Ho, 24, and Mr Sim, 23, were competing in Salzburg against 251 other university students from 83 countries to create and fly paper planes, using nothing more than a standard A4 sheet of paper.
Held every three years, the two-day event is organised by energy-drink company Red Bull.
It saw intense competition in three categories: longest distance, longest air time and best "aerobatics" - a term for the plane's aerial manouevres, such as looping and flipping.
While Mr Ho and Mr Sim failed to clinch any prizes, their exemplary behaviour caught the jury's attention.
Mr Ho, a computer-science student from the National University of Singapore, is a part-time balloon sculptor and made numerous "sculptures" to present to his opponents.
Meanwhile, engineering student Sim stayed friendly and polite towards fellow competitors despite his modest performance.
Judge Andy Chipling, the English founder of the Paper Aircraft Association, said: "Singapore may not have won the competition, but they won our hearts with their gracious and friendly spirit."
Mr Ho said: "It's amazing how a humble piece of paper can bring so many people from different cultures together."
Japan's Takeshige Kisshii took the top aerobatics prize, after wowing the judges with his ball-shaped planes that broke in mid-air to release tiny planes. In the longest air-time category, 28-year-old Leonard Ang, an ethnic Chinese from Brazil, won for his glider that stayed airborne for 11.66 seconds.
In the longest-distance category, defending champion Jovica Kozlika of Croatia kept his title after flying his plane over an astonishing 54.43m. His previous record was 39.43m. The Red Bull Paper Wings competition started in 2006 and has attracted more than 45,000 students worldwide.
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