BSB Xiao Yuexian at the 19th Asian Game Hangzhou

We are proud to announce that our Year 12 BSB student Xiao Yuexian has been selected to participate in the 19^th Asian Game Hangzhou 2023 as one of the volunteers in the Equestrian Dressage Judge Team! Only ten teenagers were selected as professional volunteers for Dressage from the whole country. 

Yuexian himself has won many awards in the Equestrian Dressage and he was very excited to be selected. His role was the Judge’s scribe which was to write down the points given and the remarks for the rider from the Judge. This was a great opportunity for him to apply his professional knowledge in contributing to the smooth operation of the Asian Game 2023.

Please see an update written by Xiao Yuexian below:

During the trip to The Asian Games, I have experienced a numerous amount of new knowledge and to be honest, this was a completely different from what I thought it would be.

One of the biggest requirement during the event would be waking up 5am in the morning and correcting the mistakes on the printed pages for the Competition that day. Sometimes the ‘order to go list’ and the printed tests didn’t match, human errors will happen and that is why we need to go through it again and again repeatedly before the competition starts. It is our job to make sure the least amount of error will happen during the competition. Just to be clear, this isn’t done all for the judge, it also applies to ourselves.

Before arriving in Hangzhou, I was worried about my professional knowledge since I have not prepared in advanced more knowledge about equestrian dressage such as key terminology used, and I have not yet remembered the map of the stadium. These factors made me worried about the efficiency of my own work. However, the things we had to do isn’t as hard as I thought it would be. My role was the judge’s scribe which was to write down the points given and the remarks for the rider from the judge.

While completing the work given, I also get the chance to learn by watching the riders in the ring. They showed to the world what they have accomplished from their training and raised my expectations for myself too. I can see what the difference between the top riders in Asia and myself is.

Also during this process, I learnt that in order to complete the work, yes, indeed I needed professional knowledge, but it wasn’t the key factor to complete the task. The key is to be focused, know which move the rider is about to do, and correct the judge if he had given a score that doesn’t match the move. To correct the judge correctly, focus doesn’t just mean that we’re focusing on what the judge is saying, the reflex on the words and matching it to the move the riders is doing, before we write it down, we ask the judge if this is what they meant, and this is the part we as scribes are the most important. Sometimes the judge forgot to give a mark for a move because he thought that this move is linked to another move, this is when I have to remind him. They have to remember multiple tests that are totally different, so this means that they will forget details. We as scribes will have to play the role that makes sure the error happening within the judge house doesn’t happen on the big screen and the television.

Please see photos of Xiao Yuexian who has won many awards in Equestrian Dressage Competitions.