TANG POLO ARENA CUP & POLO IN CHINA FORUM
The Tang Polo Club, Beijing recently staged the first arena polo tournament in China. The event received strong support and assistance from the Chinese and Beijing Equestrian Associations.
There were 12 players from the Beijing and Shanghai area, including some of China’s leading players, Shilai Liu, Nan Liu and Dino Ma Asvaintra. Additional there was one lady Wawa Hao who also played and through her recent hours of practice, held her own in the fast paced action.
Members and guests enjoyed the first “Asado” of the year for lunch and the day was full of activities for the family, with not only polo, but also enjoyable games for children, including introduction “Stick and Ball” games, fun with the horses and trying their hand with remote controlled cars. The ladies were also not forgotten, with a specially laid on class from Channel.
The action in the area was fast paced with some high scoring games and a special cheer especially from the ladies in the crowd went up, when Wawa Hao scored a goal. However through Shilai Liu’s winter practice in Argentina, Dubai and Thailand he was in good form and his team comfortably won their preliminary game 9:2.
The other two preliminary games were closer, but there were still plenty of goals for the crowd to cheer on, as they looked down from the Art Hotel, which is the clubs boutique hotel.
The Final was between Shilai Liu’s Red Team and Nan Liu’s White Team. The final started off a little tentative, however the red team in the end ran off with the cup after a 7:2 score line. All agreed that it was a great tournament and something that will become an annual event.
After the match the club hosted the “Polo in China” Forum which was chaired by Shilai Liu the Chairman of Tang Polo and Yanyang Li the Chief Editor of Horsemanship magazine. This was the first time that the leading Chinese players had all sat down to talk on their ideas of what they would like to see, in the development of polo in China.
There were several topics of discussion and it was agreed that there needs to be more tournaments for the Chinese players to take part in and not have continual mid or high goal tournaments. The Tang Polo Club is leading the way in this and has scaled down some of the tournaments to 2-4 goals, so as to enable more Chinese players to take part. Additional this will enable more interaction from the crowds who come out to watch, as they will know more of the players.
The key tournaments of the year were discussed and agreed and the format of teams for the China Amateur Open in June, where there will be approximately 8 Chinese only teams taking part was confirmed.
Finally Shilai Liu briefed on the steps that Tang Polo Club are taking on the development of local staff. The club have sent staff to Argentina and Thailand over the winter for training, also the club are soon to have an Argentinean professional farrier to visit the club and train the staff.
While it was a long day, it was also a great start to the polo season again in Beijing and all were happily looking forward to it.