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Vietnam to host 1st Polo Cup competition

Xinhua, March 17, 2015 Adjust font size:

Vietnam Charity Polo Cup 2015, the first of this kind ever held in the country, will kick off in southern Dong Nai province on Friday, announced organizers at the press conference here on Tuesday.

About 400 VIP guests and three Royal families are invited to come and watch the game between the Royal Thai team and Royal Brunei team, as well as attend charity auction activities held during the day. British Queen's nephew Peter Phillips will be among honorable guests. He will deliver a speech to introduce the charity polo cup and later present the awards to the two teams.

According to organizers, preparations for this polo cup took five months and the event cost a total investment of 1.5 million U.S. dollars.

President of the South East Asian Equestrian Federation and Owner of the Thai Polo Club, Harald Link, will send 16 horses from his club in Pattaya of Thailand to Vietnam for the event.

Vietnam's famous singer Thu Minh, who is a goodwill ambassador for the African Wildlife Foundation in the country and also believed to be the first to bring the sport to Vietnam, told reporters that the event is aimed at raising fund for protection of the wild animals and natural resources as well.

"All money from the charity auctions will be sent to the Vietnam Veterans Business Association, Stop Ivory Organization, and Save Vietnam's Wildlife Association," she said.

Minh and her husband initiated the organization of this charity polo cup with the sponsorship of Polofix Company and District 306 Company, with a hope of creating the foundation for development of this sport in Vietnam, as well as encouraging polo teams across the world to choose Vietnam for polo competitions.

Originated in Asia, polo is a team sport played on horseback. The objective is to score goals against an opposing team. There are two kind of polo: field polo and arena polo. Field polo has four players on each side who score by driving a small white plastic or wooden ball into the opposing team's goal using a long-handled mallet. Meanwhile in arena polo, only three players are required per team, who play with a small air-filled ball, similar to a small soccer ball. Arena polo usually is for training or short battle at low speeds due to limited space of the arena.

Until now, polo is played professionally in 50 countries and regions across the world. It was named as "Sport of King" and used to be listed among Olympic sports. Endi