Three regulars and former winners, Leighton Kings, STL and Keffi Ponys top the over forty confirmed to jostle for top honours as the 2020 Lagos International Polo Tournament takes to a flying start on Wednesday at the foremost Ribadu Polo Ground in Ikoyi.
The equally matched trio fortified with two foreign professionals each, and best of Nigerian players, are laying claims for the event’s biggest prize, the Majekodunmi Cup. Last year, Abuja Almat team fought through three determined oppositions from Kaduna and Lagos to win the highly revered and one of the oldest polo cups in Africa.
With their absence this year, a new Majekodunmi Cup champion is guaranteed to emerge and pundits are staking their monies for any of the Lagos based teams, Bowale Jolaoso’s Leighton Kings and Seyi Tinubu’s STL to wear the Lagos 2020 polo biggest crown.
Polo Royals can authoritatively reveal that the big boys would be joined by a crowded field of 37 teams drawn from major polo centres across the country in the ten-day campaigns for top honours in the prestigious polo festival powered by blue-chip organizations like GTB Bank, Chapelhill Denham, WAPIC Insurance, Arbico Plc and BUA Group, among others.
Tournament Manager, Seyi Oyinlola who confirmed that all is set, promised that this year’s event would be better as it has always been over the years adding “it’s going to be two weeks of thrilling polo experience for the lovers of the game.”
Oyinlola who commended GTBank, which is the main sponsor, stated that having gained the reputation as the biggest polo tournament in West Africa, the Lagos Polo Club looks forward to delivering great value for the sponsors and participants during the epoch fiesta.
Host Lagos, boosting a record entry of 22 teams should be prepared to take as much as they give as the visiting teams from Kaduna, Kano, Port Harcourt and neighbouring Ibadan are set for battles royals in the four major cups categories.
Lagos Polo Captain, Rotimi Makanjuela told Polo Royals that professional players from Argentina, United Kingdom, South Africa are billed to showcase their skills, while professional umpires are billed to take charge of officiating throughout the event.
He also stated that everything has been put in place for exciting campaigns for honours, while the tournament, remarkably, will for the fourth year running, feature female players, with Neku Edun and Natali as star female acts.
These include the glittering Silver Cup that pitches fifteen teams, Low Cup with another fifteen teams jostling for, The Open Cup parading two visiting teams and four local rivals from Lagos, and the high stakes Majekodunmi Cup respectively.
Host Lagos who is eyeing a clean sweep, will be ably represented by 27 teams who are the masters of the running game, are bookmakers choice to clinch most of the laurels of the offer. But make no mistake; these equally visiting teams have demystified these Lagosians in their dreaded Ribadu Road before, they have all its takes to do it again this year.
For about a decade now, the glamorous event would be decided over two weekends of bumper to bumper polo actions running from Tuesday to Sunday each. The first weeks that offers the Silver Cup and the highly sort after, Lagos Open cup as its biggest allures, is billed to climax with the glittering Governor’s Cup final as the star attraction.
The second weekend that would ultimately draw the curtain on the 2020 Lagos polo extravaganza will feature highly ambitious medium and high goals teams in the race for the event’s biggest prize, the Majekodunmi Cup, Italian Ambassador’s Cup, the Independence Cup and the prestigious Lagos Open cup respectively.
As the oldest polo tournament in the country, dating back to early 1900s and the guaranteed royals participation of the Oba of Lagos and other first-class emirs, the prestigious 2020 fiesta is guaranteed to be most exciting and highly competitive and lots of funs.
‘’We in Lagos are proud to have top teams from all over the country response to our invitation by attending our tournament every year. This is the birthplace of Nigerian polo and we are looking forward to maintaining our high standard as the first and the biggest ‘’, Vice President, Bode Makanjuela said.
For 116 years and still counting, the Lagos showpiece t has continually attracted the biggest crowd annually and this year, it is a must-attend for all the top teams around the country, with polo enthusiasts arriving from around the world. And, the popularity of this annual festival is far from weaning.
