Not enough medals at Award Ceremony

The final of The International Master Fitter Competition 2008 on the last glasstec day got a surprising end. Because of Japan and Denmark finishing joint third an extra bronze medal was missing….

The gold medal, the huge world cup, a magnum bottle of champagne and the title International Master Fitter 2008 went to Jeff Olive who earlier this month won NGA’s American Master Fitter Installer Championship. The silver medal hung around the neck of Gergely Igazvölgyi, Hungary. The two bronze medals were for Daniel Andersen from Denmark and Toshiyuki Isohata from Japan.

Other countries taking part in the competition came from Germany, France, Italy, The Netherlands, Norway, Romania and Sweden. The participants performed in replacing a side window, replacing a back window, repairing a windshield and replacing a windshield. For each of them a new Mercedes Benz C-class was available.

The Rules of the Competition were based on criteria for quality and health and safety only. Arne Hansen of AGE and chairman of the team of 12 judges underlined in a statement during the award ceremony that at the very end the differences in the performances of the competitors were limited. On the respective elements they were more divided among themselves. Champion Jeff Olive got most points on the replacement of the back window and joint with Toshiyuki Isohata on the replacement of the windshield. Gergely Igazvölgyi made the highest scores in both the repair of the windshield and the replacement of the side window.

InterAutoGlass’ managing director Pim de Ridder was pleased with the autoglass repair and replacement participation glasstec, worlds leading tradeshow for glass at Messe Düsseldorf with about 55,000 visitors, 1,300 exhibitors and 73,000 m2 of expositions. “The international competition like the national versions for The Netherlands and Germany the days before got attention from many glasstec visitors and colleagues in the glass industry. The events help us a lot to promote our specialist sector”, he said.

International Automotive Glass Federation started at the end of 2007. It concentrates especially on technical standards and codes, training programmes and health and safety issues. The activities will also be visible in national and international competitions for autoglass technicians or fitters.