The competition was held on a landscape of approximately 42,000 square metres of land located directly off Eko Boulevard. It was participated by six teams with a total of about 80 horses and 24 riders from the Lagos Polo Club.
It was attended by selected participants from the oil and gas, manufacturing, agriculture, real estate, banking and finance, telecommunications and several other notable industries to ensure guest numbers are controlled and avoid overcrowding with a maximum of 1,000.
According to Mr. Habeeb Fasinro, who is the president of the Lagos Polo Club, Beach polo is similar to arena polo, which was set up in 1904 under British colonial rule. He said, “It is usually played off season, when you’re not playing on grass, just to keep the horses in shape. But now it’s turned into something very big. You have the world beach polo tournament as well in Miami, you have it in Dubai, in Ibiza”
He said that the beach polo debuted in 2004 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and the following year the game took to the beaches of South Beach Miami and has continued to grow in popularity ever since.
Fasinro said , “A growing new audience has the ability to combine a day at polo with a day on some of the most beautiful beaches in the world while maintaining the glamour of the sport. The growing number of worldwide beach polo events have aided in exposing the sport of polo to a new audience in a fun and exciting fashion. Eko Atlantic will be no exception
He further noted that Polo isn’t a recent sport in Nigeria and has remained popular among the wealthy even after the country gained independence from Britain in 1960. He added that has Nigeria has at least 30 polo clubs, adding that Lagos Polo Club has between 80 to 100 players.
He said, “There’s a very long tradition of polo in Lagos. We’ve attracted the best players who’ve come here and played with us. And we’ve had Nigerian players also playing abroad quite frequently. A good number of us played in Europe this season, in England mostly.
Ronald Chagoury Junior, the vice-president of Eko Atlantic revealed that the idea of the tournament was aimed at creating activity in the new city. He added that a beach football tournament, ‘Copa Lagos’, had earlier been held on the sand of Eko Atlantic. He further noted that the promoters of the tournament, which he described as the sport traditionally associated with the elite, sensed an investment opportunity through the hosting of the tournament on the entire Eko Atlantic city project.
According to Brent Sadler the spokesman of the project, “We want to associate Eko Atlantic, the new city for Lagos, with polo (the sport of kings). We want to show that we’re producing a professional quality, prestigious city that people will enjoy living in and people will understand what we’re doing here by coming to watch polo.”
Team Lagos Polo Club emerged winners amidst a tight competition from the Red Bull team with a 5-4 score line at the end of the day. It was sponsored by Access Bank, Eko Energy Estate and Eko Pearl Nigeria Ltd others are Moet and Hennessey, Samsung and Coscharis
0 comments:
Post a Comment