The fastest man in the world travels by plane when he’s not running. HGL knows this for a fact, because we brought him to Budapest in the spring of 2024. If you’re interested in more details, read the article below, compiled by HGL’s Special Projects Team. Off to Houston, Doha and New Delhi!
HGL Group 2024 completed a number of international logistics projects during the first half of 2024, and would like to highlight those which particularly excited us.
It will come as no surprise to anyone who regularly reads HGL’s articles or follows the company’s Facebook and LinkedIn pages that these more interesting projects relate to the world of sport. It is well known that at HGL we love and support sport: for example, we transported all the equipment for the Canadian national ice hockey team, and are the main sponsor of the Debrecen Table Tennis Club, a sports club that nurtures future talent and about whose notable achievements we regularly report on.
Any successful major sporting event has three vital components, the athletes, the venue and the fans. HGL routinely handles the logistics for athletes baggage and equipment, but this time we would like to explain how we also work to help prepare the venue for an event, and to support fans’ access to these events worldwide. So lets look at how in doing this we linked Houston, Doha, and New Delhi with Budapest.
HOUSTON – Event equipment for the Budapest Sports Arena
Budapest’s Papp László Sports Arena was our destination for project work several times during the first half of the year. This sports arena, named after three-time Olympic champion Hungarian boxer László Papp, is Hungary’s second largest sports complex,. The facility hosts a wide range of sporting events, with a seating capacity that varies accouring to the event, from 9 479 for ice hockey matches up to 11 390 people for boxing matches. Because of its size, the arena is not only a venue for sporting events, but also fequently hosts concerts.
HGL provided assistance in organizing the following events in early 2024:
- We were commissioned by an American company to transport event equipment to and from Houston;
- We also transported event equipment to and from the Sports Arena on behalf of 709 Agency LLC.
DOHA – Delivery of the Hawk-Eye system to a swimming event
Fans are an essential part of any sporting event. The many thousands who can attend in person are hugely outnumbered by the millions more worldwide who watch remotely, and the companies that broadcast these events have a vital role to play in entertaining and informing these remote fans, and they rely on large amounts of delicate (and very expensive!) technical equipment to do so. This is where HGL comes in.
Photo: hawkeyeinnovations.com
Hawk-Eye, part of the Sony group, is a professional company known worldwide for its innovative solutions in the field of live sports broadcasting.
Photo: hawkeyeinnovations.com
The company’s technical equipment was transported from Doha to Hungary by HGL. This equipment is expensive and sensitive, and so requires special care. A lot of fans’ entertainment depended on it arriving safely and on time.
NEW DELHI – How HGL transported the fastest man in the world
We have to admit that this is only half true, as we didn’t actually transport the fastest runner of all time himself, but we did carefully handle his life-size replica.
In the first quarter of 2024, HGL delivered Usain Bolt’s wax figure to Madame Tussauds Budapest. Commissioned by Merlin Entertainment, the figure arrived to Budapest by air in a 109 kg, 1.6 cubic metre crate from New Delhi, India. Customs clearance was handled by HGL specialists.
Photo by Madame Tussauds Budapest Facebook page
Olympic champion and world record holder Bolt has become a worthy addition to the Madame Tussauds collection, and the sprinter’s incredibly realistic wax figure is waiting for fans at the Budapest exhibition in his classic “lightning pose” – a posture that became iconic at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
HGL: a reliable partner for international logistics
HGL are delighted that in the first part of 2024 we were once again able to be the professional partner that professional international companies relied on to provide world-class services. These successful projects prove yet again that HGL always delivers with maximum expertise and precise timing.
HGL has become an important player in the logistics industry for a reason: we provide our partners with reliable logistics services by land, sea and air, as well as customs clearance and warehousing.