The Olympic Council of Asia (OCA) has officially approved the logo and mascot for the 5^th Asian Beach Games (ABG5) to be held in Da Nang in 2016, announced the Viet Nam Sports Administration on July 1.

The mascot features a salangane, a typical bird of the Viet Nam’s southern central coast (Photo: ocasia.org)

The ABG5 logo is designed to represent waves and sand in the shape of young, healthy and dynamic athletes playing sports with the OCA’s symbol inside.

All components of the logo rise up to form a large shape of V standing for Viet Nam, Victory, and the number 5 in Roman numerals, for the host country, highlighting the competition spirit and the athletes’ high aspirations.

The combination of sea and sand reflects the strength and strong will of Vietnamese sports. It also carries the message of friendliness and welcome, representing the solidarity and friendship of the Asian community with the expectation of a successful event.

Meanwhile, the mascot features a salangane, a typical bird of the Viet Nam’s southern central coast.

The mascot is a stylized boy with funny hair on top of the head and a small V-shaped tail (a characteristic of a salangane) holding a lighted torch representing solidarity, peace and vitality of mankind.

The colours used for the mascot are blue, red, black and yellow. The mascot with childish energy, innocent facial expression, simple shape and various colours is expected to touch people hearts and easily to turn into a teddy bear or other souvenirs.

The logo and mascot were selected from a contest which began in 2014 and received 198 entries from 62 creators, including 155 logo proposals and 43 mascot designs.

(Source: VNA)