allAfrica, March 20th, 2015,
By: Sam Anokam
Lagos. — Members of the Eko Atlantic and Lagos Polo Club have teamed up to create and host the first beach polo tournament at Eko Atlantic.
Beach polo was created and first played in 2004 in Dubai, United Arab Emirates. The following year the game took to the beaches of South Beach Miami and has continued to grow in popularity ever since.
The event which is expected to grow a new kind of audience who will combine playing and watching the polo game with glamour of the beach will be held over three days beginning from Thursday, March 19 through to Sunday, March 22 with a number of Nigerian teams participating in the round robin tournament.
This means that every team will play every other team in their pool once. This allows for a wide variety of opponents and each team can be equally as involved as opposed to a knock out competition. Each of the four teams in the pools would progress to the finals which would take place on the final day, pool winners will compete for the main cup, runners up would play for the plate, third place will play for the bowl and the last place will play for the shield. This format will guarantee each team four matches as well as games on each of the three days of competition.
Polo is known around the world as “the sport of Kings” and in Nigeria this is also the case.
However, entry to the Eko Atlantic Beach Polo Tournament will be strictly by invitation.
