HH SHEIKHA MAITHA AND TEAM UAE CROWNED WINNERS OF SECOND RALPH LAUREN INTERNATIONAL LADIES POLO TOURNAMENT IN DUBAI
Under the patronage of Her Highness Sheikha Maitha Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, the second Ralph Lauren International Ladies Polo Tournament took place last week at Desert Palm in Dubai. The event also held a unique All Stars match which consisted of the highest ranking female players playing together in one match.
HH Sheikha Maitha Bint Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, daughter of HH Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, Vice-President and Prime Minister of the UAE and Ruler of Dubai, won the prestigious Ralph Lauren International Ladies Polo Tournament earlier today with her fellow teammates from Team UAE.
The All Stars Trophy Award was presented to Team UAE by John Hooks, Group President of Europe & Middle East Ralph Lauren.
Final’s Trophy Award for the winning regional team was presented to HH Sheikha Maitha of Team UAE by Patrick Chalhoub, CEO of Chalhoub Group. Tareq Bawardi presented Marianela Castagnola the Best Playing Pony Award for her horse for the match, Chisme, which is owned by HH Sheikha Maitha.
Best Playing Amateur Award went to Princess Azemah, presented by Ingie Chalhoub, President & Managing Director, Etoile Group.
All players were then presented medals alongside iconic Ralph Lauren watches and blankets, presented by Ingie Chalhoub.
Ralph Lauren International Ladies Polo Finals Match
Team UAE vs Team Europe 8-4
Finals day here at Desert Palm at the Ralph Lauren Inwith expected favourites UAE against Princess Azemah’s Team Europe captained by Nina Clarkin. The match got off to a sticky start with a 2-1 first chukka favouring UAE where Team Europe amateur Ann-Marie Cavanagh took a fall. After a quick medical check she was clear to carry on. Second chukka saw the strength of UAE power on to get a 4-goal lead with a late end chukka for Team Europe bringing the score to 6-2.
Both teams took a quick rest in between 3rd and 4th. Team Europe rethought tactics to play a more defensive role against UAE and to send Princess Azemah forward as striker to bring the score at end of 3rd chukka 7-4. All to play for final chukka as Team Europe showed yesterday, clawing back a 3-goal deficit in semi-finals.
It was evident going into last chukka seeing UAE’s supremacy stretch their lead to a winning score of 8-4. Nothing could be taken away from the valiant effort showed by Nina Clarkin displayed in partnership w her team mates.
Sunny Hale was a top scorer with 4 goals, with HH Sheikha Maitha and Marianela Castagnola scoring 2 goals each.
This win saw HH Sheikha Maitha and Team UAE reclaiming the Ralph Lauren International Ladies Polo Tournament title.
Ralph Lauren International Ladies Polo All Stars Match.
Team A 5-2 Team B
This has been a long awaited match to bring the highest ranking female players in the world together.
British Nina Clarkin (9 goals) and Sunny Hale, the American sweetheart, (9 goals), two huge polo stars, accompanied by another four of the top ranking professional players; Hazel Jackson (8), Eva Breuhl (7), Marianela
Castagnola (7), Lucy Taylor (7), Middle East leading amateur player HH Sheikha Maitha (4), and Asia’s leading female player, Ploy Bhinsaeng (3). These group of stars fielded a 27 goal team for both sides which in itself
is a world record for the highest ever female rated polo match.
Ralph Lauren All Stars got off to a furious start with Nina Clarkin and a couple of solo efforts by the player who scored 2 opening goals in the first chukka and HH Sheikha Maitha and her closing goal at the end of the chukka to give All Stars Team A a 3-0 lead which still stood at end of second chukka with no score from either team.
Third chukka was a promising start for US’s Sunny Hale who brought back the score back to 3-1. That was short lived with a reply from HH SheikhaMaitha scoring an open field goal to bring the game to 4-1 with a closing
end to end goal from Nina Clarkin to end the chukka 5-1 in favour of HH Sheikha Maitha and Team UAE.
It was too much for Sunny Hale with her 4-goal deficit only to pull back a consolation goal to score 5-2.
Tournament Director Pete McCormack said “This is an historical moment for women’s polo to have such a great partnership with leading brand Ralph Lauren and to stage this wonderful Ladies International Tournament”.
All Stars Team A – pink shirts
– HH Sheikha Maitha (Captain)
– Lucy Taylor
– Nina Clarkin
– Marianela Castagnola
All Stars Team B – white shirts
– Sunny Hale (Captain)
– Ploy Bhinsaeng
– Hazel Jackson
– Eva Breuhl
Ralph Lauren’s established partners in the Middle East since 16 years, The Chalhoub Group and Etoile Group are delighted to be sharing with Ralph Lauren such an exciting new sports initiative, as well as continuing to support Dubai Cares in their charity programs.