Zones for the European Championship have been determined

Mikey Henderson (Ireland Polo Team), promises serious polo action with his mantra “Go hard or go home”

Maifeld Stadium with the view of the Olympiastadion Berlin. Ph: Norbert Steffens/Polo+10

Berlin, August 19th, 2016 – The FIP (Federation of International Polo) has carried out the draw for the XI. European Championship 2016 Berlin for the zones of the playing countries:

Zone A: Germany – Ireland – Slovakia – Netherlands

Zone B: France – Italy – Austria – Poland

The games for Sunday August 28th and Monday August 29th are as follow:

Sunday August 28th:

ZONE A – Germany vs Slovakia – 13:00

ZONE B – France vs Poland – 14:30

Monday August 29th:

ZONE A – Ireland vs Netherlands – 13:00

ZONE B – Italy vs Austria – 14:30

The qualification phase will be played from August 26 to September 2 at Preussiche Polo and Country Club Berlin Brandenburg in Phoeben. The action will move to the impressive Maifeld, inside the Berlin Olympic Stadium, on September 3. The Championship finals will be held on September 4.

Mikey Henderson receives MVP award from HPA Chairman Stephen Hutchinson. Ph: PoloLine

The protagonists speak out:

Mikey Henderson, from the National Irish Polo Team, spoke about his expectations and scooped some details on his team’s performance : “We are going to give this tournament 110% and aiming to walk away with the trophy, as I suppose all the other teams competing aim at. Our strategy is pretty simple, “go hard or go home”. We’re a four man team so we will look to stretch the teams we come up against and hopefully outscore them by the time the game’s up. I’ve played with the Hutchinson family for the past eight seasons, so that will work in favour. This will be a first for me playing with Creighton Boyd but I’ve played a lot against him: knowing each other’s games inside out, going into the tournament we are very comfortable as team.

Even though I’m not too familiar with a lot of the players in the other teams, everyone of these have been put together with the view of trying to win the tournament. Our toughest game will always be the next team we play against.

I myself have never been to Germany so Berlin will be completely new to me and I’m very much looking forward to it, it will be nice to have a look around and do some site seeing in our down time but will still be focused on the tournament at hand. All in all this will be a great experience for everyone involved and if we manage to go all the way there will surely a party to be had by all the Irish boys!”