FIP Newsletter - Federation of international Polo

FIP Newsletter
Federation of International Polo
February 2015
Volume 21
Message from the President
Special points of
interest:
Dear Members
 FIP World Snow
Polo Champions
 Playoffs for FIP
10th World
Championships
 Youth/Jr grant in
Sotogrande
 10th World
Championships
Santiago, Chile
 Travel updates
online for those
attending the
World Championships
Inside this issue:
It has been a great start to
2015 with teams from 12
member Nations battling it out
under blue skies in Tianjin to
get to the final of the FIP Fortune Heights World Snow Polo
Championships, the largest of
its kind in the world and the
only snow tournament fielding
National Teams. Congratulations to the two Finalists who
had never reached the final
before; Brazil and Team USA,
as well as to all the other Nations who sent their athletes to
take part in an extremely well
run and exciting tournament
which grows year on year.
Your Executive Committee had
an extremely productive series
of meetings during the tournament finalising the details for
the FIP World Championship in
Chile in March, discussing the
Zone D proposals which should
go out to the Nations in that
Zone over the next month or so
to get their input and preparing
the paperwork to go out to our
members for their input on our
search for a permanent CEO.
We also had some serious
meetings with our Honorary VicPresident, Mr Pan Sutong to
hear his plans for the future
development of polo in both
China and Hong Kong. This
includes the construction of a
7,000 seat indoor covered
arena for snow polo which
should be completed by 2017.
Mention must be made of the
sterling work done by the FIP
management and staff during
the Tournament under the direction of Alejandro Taylor,
Peter Abisheganaden, Benjamin Araya, JJ Diaz Alberdi and
all their support staff. Thank
you all for your dedication to
the cause.
great pleasure for FIP to be
working with the San Cristobal
Polo Club and the Chilean Polo
Federation to ensure that the
event will be a great success.
We look forward to seeing you
all there in March.
It only remains for me to say
that the FIP World Cup is shaping up extremely well both on
the organizational as well as
the financial front and it is a
Snow Polo Results
2
Sotogrande Kids
2
Playoffs Peru
2
More Zone Playoffs
3
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Meet the President
4
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FIP in the News
4
Championship Archives 4
on Wikipedia
Plans ramping up for 10th FIP World Championship
Travel updates at http://www.fippolo.com/events/
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FIP Newsletter
Page 2
BRAZIL WINS FIP SNOW POLO IN TIANJIN
http://www.snowpoloworldcup.com/2015/ WEBSITE WITH ALL DETAILS
FIP Fortune Heights
Snow Polo World Cup
News stories: Living Polo,
CBP - Confederação Brasileira de Polo
ClickPolo—en español
Polo+10
ZONE B PLAYOFFS
Game 1
November 25th, 2014
Brazil vs Uruguay
Final Result Feb 8, 2015
France vs Argentina 8-5
Brazil vs USA
11-5
1st —Brazil
2nd—USA
3rd—Argentina
4th France
Most Valuable Player—
Gustavo Garcia (Brazil)
Best Pony—BAGI
The 4th Annual Snow Polo
World Cup held in Tianjin,
China showcased the latest
advancements in media and
social content along with
streaming coverage of all the
action.
New this year was the “official
magazine” available on the
website that emphasized the
program, social occasions,
and hotel amenities in addition to profiles and schedules.
There was also a new “official
broadcaster” Now TV was
available online in various
languages shown in Asia real
time. The website detects
where your are from and asks
if you would like to change
languages and time zones
automatically. A very cool
feature we haven’t seen until
now.
www.hurlinghampolo.com also
carried replays of all the
games and are still available.
Extensive coverage was also
sent out each day of the tournament to the FIP Members
and Media “Mailchimp” Mailing lists with results of the
days events. If you are not
receiving those, contact
sandy@fippolo.com to be added to the list.
13 – 4 1/2 (Winner Brazil)
Clinic Infantil—”FIP Sponsored with ARISF Grant”
Game 2
November 27th, 2014
Peru vs Uruguay
11 1/2 – 9 (Winner Uruguay)
Game 3
November 29th, 2014
Brazil vs Peru
11 1/2 – 8 (Winner Peru)
YOUTH AND JUNIOR CLINIC 2014 in Sotogrande, Spain
Between August 11th and
24th, we held the 6th Junior
and Youth Clinic at Club de
Polo La Capilla, located at
Sotogrande. 24 kids aged 8
to 16 where organized in three
groups taking into account
their play level. The event’s
Director was Marcos Araya, an
Argentine professional polo
player, along Luis Benjumea
and Francisco Rufino where in
charge of giving classes to the
kids groups. The clinic was
divided into different phases
according to the kid’s playing
levels, which included horse
caring, training & tack and
later, riding and game techniques. The event finished
with two tournaments: Timmy
Vd Brand and the Spanish
Tournament. Ten teams in
three categories, which included kids from the clinics along
with other professional player’s sons who where at Sotogrande, participated.
“ Final game of
the series Perú
vs Brazil was
played at the
magnificent
facilities of the
Lima Polo Club
in downtown
Lima in front of
a large crowd
followed by a
great party.”
Peru and Zone B Playoffs
Zone B playoffs for the X
World Polo Championship
were played in Peru at the
Lima Polo Club from November 24th to 29th, 2014. Brazil, Peru and Uruguay got to
play against each other for a
place at Final Round. The first
game, Brazil vs Uruguay, saw
the Brazilian team as winners.
On the second
game Uruguay
played against the
locals, Peru, and
scored a win that
kept their qualifying chances open.
The third and final game had
Peru beating the Brazilian
team, luckily for Brazil the goal
difference got them to qualify
for the Final Round played in
Chile.
Page 3
Volume 21
England qualify for The FIP 2015 World Championships
Tue 30th Sep 2014 Ireland
defeated France in the final
game of The 14 Goal Zone C
Playoffs at the Beaufort Polo
Club today. The win for Ireland
has given England the place in
the World Championships
which will be played next year
in Chile. The game between
Ireland and France was a
nerve-wracking battle with the
Irish team lagging behind in
the scores until the final chukka when they equalised with
just four minutes left on the
clock. Ireland pulled it out of
the bag with just 14 seconds
remaining to score the winning goal bringing the final
score to 7-6. Ireland’s victory
puts England in first place,
with the home team qualifying
for Chile. Ireland ended a very
close second, with matching
points but no goal advantage.
France finished in third place
with three points and Spain
took fourth after they were
nudged out of the running
early on with losses against
England, Ireland and a draw
against France. The England
team line-up of Peter Webb,
Will Emerson, Tommy Ber-
esford and George Pearson
will be heading to Santiago,
Chile.
Story: Polo Times News
Pakistan Polo team qualify for FIP World Championships – Chile 2015
Team Pakistan will be heading
for Chile in March 2015 to
play alongside the other qualifiers in the Federation of International Polo World Championships (FIP) to be hosted by
the Club de Polo y Equitacion
San Cristobal in Santiago, in
conjunction with the Federation Chilena de Polo. This
follows a qualification game at
the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club in China against
their longstanding polo rivals
India, in a game which saw
play go to ‘sudden death’ in
the seventh chukka. Playing
in the winning Pakistan side
were: Captain, Maj Haseeb
Minhas ( 3), Zain Khakwani
(3), Saqib Khakwani (4) and
Ahmed Ali Tiwana (4), who
took on team India: Naveen
Singh (1), Lt. Col. Ravi Rthore
(4), Abhimanyu Pathak (4) and
Simran Shergill (5). Following
some nail biting play and great
field goals and an initial 4-1
lead to India with 52 seconds
left on the clock in the final
chukka the score drew 8 all. A
missed 30 yard penalty by
India not only stopped them
from taking the lead, but also
forced the game into a seventh chukka. It was to be a
game of missed penalties for
India, but not for Pakistan as
Saquib Khakwani converted a
60 yard penalty winning the
game 9-8 for Pakistan and a
place in the World Championships in Chile (not surprisingly
he was also awarded
MVP). Story: Hurlingham Polo
Team USPA Wins Zone “A” Playoffs
PRLog - Dec. 15, 2014 - LAKE
WORTH, Fla. -- The United
States Polo Association (USPA)
announced today that Team
USPA, representing the United
States, has won the FIP Zone
“A” playoffs going 3-0 in a
round robin format against the
national teams of Canada,
Dominican Republic, and Mex-
ico. The matches were played
at Casa de Campo in the Dominican Republic. As the
winner, the United States has
earned the last coveted spot
at the FIP World Championship Finals where they will
compete against the winners
of the three other FIP Zone
Playoffs, Brazil, England, and
Pakistan. In its final match,
Team USPA defeated Mexico
10-3. Representing the United States in the FIP Zone “A”
Playoffs as Team USPA are:
Jared Sheldon, Jesse Bray
Felipe Viana, Patrick Uretz,
Mason Wroe, Will Tankard,
and head coach Joel Baker.
Story: USPA
“There is
consideration
being given
for turning
Zone D into
two sub zones
due to the
large size of
the area
making travel
expensive.”
FIP is in the news: (Click on the stories to read this and more)
Federation of
International Polo
Here is how to reach us:
General Inquiry:
office@fippolo.com
President: president@fippolo.com
CEO: ataylor@fippolo.com
Administration:
fdelsel@fippolo.com
Communications/media:
sandy@fippolo,com
Note of interest: Wikipedia,
the online free encyclopedia
carries statistics from FIP
World Championships .
Team results and other statistics available at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/
World_Polo_Championship
1. 30jardas interview with Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers
2. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/othersports/polo/11330129/Olympicinclusion-for-polo-will-be-difficult-so-involvement-at-World-EquestrianGames-is-key-says-FIP-president.html
3. http://www.poloplus10.com/polo-plus-10-interview-nicholas-colquhoundenvers-keeping-in-the-saddle-as-long-as-possible-43712/
4. http://www.pololine.com/?
lang=1&sec=3&note=5964&pag=0&anoB=2014
5. http://www.livemint.com/Companies/VT3hJqLpgId7gcnhlf4oDK/Nicholas
-Colquhoun-Denvers--We-are-very-concerned-about-hor.html
6. http://poloequestrian.com/nicholas-colquhoun-denvers-elected-presidentof-federation-of-international-polo/
7. Polo +10 World Magazine—page 7 Interview with Dr. Piero Dillier
8. CNN Equestrian - Snow Polo interview with Dr. Caleel (Time/Date: TBD)
9. Liechtenstein Polo Association as (new) Corresponding Member of the FIP
10. "Kazakhstan Federation Polo" now a FIP Full Member
11. FIP Snow Polo World Championship replays www.hurlinghampolo.com
Getting to know the new FIP President
Nicholas J.A. Colquhoun-Denvers, Esq. was elected as President of the Federation
of International Polo at the General Assembly held in Buenos Aires, December 4,
2014 succeeding Dr Richard Caleel.
Educated in Malaya and then at Christ Church Grammar School in Perth, Western
Australia, Nicholas Colquhoun-Denvers has a wide and varied experience of polo
organizations. He ran Army Polo in Hong Kong in the mid 1970s and is a past
Chairman of the Hurlingham Polo Association (2009-2012) and also as an HPA
Steward for over 16 years, he continues in his post as Chairman of Ham Polo Club
in London, a position he has held for over 20 years.
The son of a Senior Australian Diplomat, Nicholas served as an officer with the
British Army in the UK, Germany and Hong Kong as well as playing in over 17
countries around the world in his 40 year playing career. He is proud to be a low
goal player who held a 1 goal handicap for some 17 years and at 66 years of age
still plays regularly during the summer season in the UK.
The World Wide Governing Body of Polo
as designated by the IOC
We’re on the web:
www.fippolo.com
Recent quotes from the press on his FIP Presidency: “It’s a great challenge – but
then I have always enjoyed a challenge!” As the IOC recognized Federation of National Associations I hope we can all work together to promote our sport as well
as encourage and assist the cause of young players worldwide. We also need to
help promote polo in new parts of the world and as well as supporting the smaller
established countries who do not get much International Match experience ”
– What are the biggest challenges facing the Federation? “Firstly, we need to
ensure that our Federation’s administration is run in an efficient and professional
manner consistent with its place in the polo community. We need to listen to our
Members and to take their requirements into consideration and work with them
on any changes which may benefit the Federation and its member nations. We
need encourage lower handicap tournaments in certain parts of the world so that
the nation members who cannot achieve either the 8 or 14 goal level can still participate in international tournaments and enjoy the benefits of FIP. We also need
to work closely with the larger polo nations to encourage them to give more support to the emerging polo nations by helping FIP to provide training for umpires,
coaches and players. But most of all we need to bring the FIP polo family back
together again.”