Surprise at the very start of the first Arena Polo venue held in Baku/Azerbaijan this weekend. Last night during the team presentation at the Kempinskik Badamar, M. Ahadpur Kangah, Polo President of the Azerbaijan Federation of Polo (AZFP), announced a remarkable prize money for the most competitive teams. 100,000 euros will be given to the winning team, another 75,000 euros, 50,000 euros and 25,000 euros will be handed out to the second, third and fourth place. Organiser Reto Gaudenzi from Switzerland, who has already invented the Polo on Ice in St. Moritz and is now bringing Arena Polo to Azerbaijan, could not hide his surprise. „We did not at all expect Ahadpur Kangah to provide such a huge amount of prize money. It is amazing, the players are highly motivated. There was never before a prize money of that extend in the polo sport in Europe.“
At six o’clock local time the teams will line up for the first chukka at the new polo arena in Baku, which M. Ahadpur Kangah has built for 6 million euros. The realisation of two full-size polo fields is already planned for next year. About 1,000 persons are expected to watch the polo debut at the Caspian Sea. For tomorrow and the finals on Sunday, even 3,000 spectators per day are announced, the VIP area is already completely sold out. Beside teams from Azerbaijan, England and Argentina there is also a German team starting, lead by the best German player Thomas Winter (+5) from Hamburg. Winter: „I never saw so many TV teams and cameras in my whole polo career as here in Baku, not even in Buenos Aires. The prize money is outstanding – and yes of course – we will give our very best to win here.“ The 24 horses for the polo matches are provided by the Laplacette family who runs the famous Allegria near Buenos Aires. Since three month they are in Baku now being trained for the polo debut coming up tonight. POLO+10 who is doing the press work for the event will keep you posted about the results and further polo days here in Baku. 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)
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