At the forthcoming weekend, the polo world turns to Azerbaijan. POLO+10 will be present to report on the first Arena Polo World Cup Azerbaijan. Under the motto “Bringing polo home”, the tournament will take place from September 6th to 8th, 2013. Four teams with players from Argentina, the US, Great Britain and Germany will go head to head at the newly built outdoor polo arena at the Elite Equestrian Centre in Baku.
Three German top players are going to play for the team Baltika 7: Niffy Winter (+4) and his brother Thomas Winter (+6), the best German polo player as well as young player Heinrich Dumrath (+4), who has won the German Championship high goal two weeks before together with Adrian Laplacette (+6). The last-named also participates in the tournament, this time together with Manolo Fernandez Llorente (+7), Agustin Kronhaus (+4) and Ignacio Campos Carles (+4) for the Argentinian team Chopard.
Highlights of the event will include a friendly match aimed at shining a spotlight on the Azerbaijanian roots of polo, made up of mixed teams from the Azerbaijan chovgan team and one of the participating teams. The three-day tournament is sponsored by the Azerbaijan food company Milla, as well as team sponsors Chopard, Bentley, Montblanc and Baltika 7. World Polo and local partners Tatyana Sulzenbacher (Event Organiser for Milla Az FPCo.), Etibar Quliyev (Manager Elite Horse Club) and Bahruz Nabiyev (Secretary General ARAF) are responsible for the production and organisation of the event.
Central Asia is the birthplace of polo. “Chovgan” – a centuries-old traditional form of polo – is still played in many places in Azerbaijan, but polo in its modern-day form has not really taken hold in this country on the edge of the Caspian Sea. But this is meant to be changed with the first Arena Polo World Cup Azerbaijan. The tournament is the first step to turn Azerbaijan into an enthusiastic polo nation. The country will also apply to become a member of the World Polo Association FIP at the beginning of December and an Azerbaijan national polo team will be established over the coming months.
M. Ahadpur Khangah, organizer of the tournament: “We will carry out an application and selection process for potential polo players from Azerbaijan. Ten players will be chosen and they will then go and train in Argentina for six months with professional Argentinian polo player Adrian Laplacette and his team at the Alegria polo farm near Buenos Aires. After that, the Azerbaijan players will then play in Europe over the coming season. The aim is of course for the Azerbaijan team to participate in the Polo European Championships 2015. The new polo nation of Azerbaijan will officially request membership of the Federation of International Polo when the Federation meets in Argentina on 5 December.”
POLO+10 will attend the event and report daily from Azerbaijan. You will find the most beautiful pictures, all results, statements of the players and a current coverage of the tournament at www.polo-magazin.de!
The teams:
Chopard (+17)
Adrian Laplacette (+6)
Manolo Fernandez Llorente (+7)
Agustin Kronhaus (+4)
Ignacio Campos Carles (+4)
Bentley (+17)
Satnam Dhillon (+7)
Simon Crotto (+5)
Andres Laplacette (+5)
Antony Fanshawe (+3)
Montblanc (+17)
Matias Vial Perez (+7)
Pablo Miguens (+7)
Tito Gaudenzi (+3)
Christopher Degano (+3)
Baltika 7 (+17)
Thomas Winter (+6)
Heinrich Dumrath (+4)
Raul Laplacette (+7)
Niffy Winter (+4)
www.worldpolo.com
