The inaugural BMW Singapore Beach Polo Championship 2016 drew to an exhilarating close that saw team Oceania take home the winning title with a 31⁄2 win.
Led by Australian Captain Ric McCarthy, the Oceania team fought hard to score two goals under a minute of the game in the first chukka. McCarthy scored an impressive winning goal in the last few minutes of the final chukka. “I’d like to thank the Singapore Polo Club for the work they’ve done and for supplying their ponies to us. To be able to fly out from Australia and be out here on this pitch and have such a great time, it’s amazing and to win the tournament, it was special,” said McCarthy.
Team Asia didn’t make it an easy feat for team Oceania. Representing the Singapore Polo Club, captain Satinder Garcha and his team played a battle of wits throughout the match – so much so the ball had to be replaced in the second chukka after going out of shape. Team Oceania managed to block several of their attempts at a goal, earning themselves the prestigious title, with team Asia taking the position of runner-up. Team America and Europe battled for the third and fourth placing earlier in the day, the former winning 41⁄2 under the leadership of Captain Francisco Guinazu.
The best partnership was evident in Ali Reda and his horse Ashhab as he took the Most Valuable Player award while Ashhab was awarded the Best Playing Pony title.
Besides an intense day of beach polo matches the audience also got to enjoy a quartet performance, Miss World Resort fashion show, and even participate in Singapore Polo Club’s Outreach Programme before the night culminated to an end with the after-party. Close to 700 guests and spectators, including His Highness Tunku Idris Iskandar Ismail Abdul Rahman Ibni Sultan Ibrahim, The Temenggong of Johor and Ambassadors from the many embassies in Singapore were in attendance.
“BMW has a long history with the sport of Polo and it was our pleasure to partner with the Singapore Polo Club to host the first-ever Singapore BMW Beach Polo Championship,” said Axel Pannes, Managing Director, BMW Group Asia. “The two-day event drew a truly international crowd and provided them a unique opportunity to witness one of the oldest sports in action. We look forward to collaborating with the Singapore Polo Club on future activities.”
Rickard Hogberg, President of the Singapore Polo Club also shared that this was the first time the team organized an event out of the grounds of the Club “For the first time, beach polo is being played on the sands of Singapore and I hope this will be a memorable experience not just for our players but also our guests and the public. This is an event which took about 2 months of planning and execution and this expeditious execution would not have been possible without the support of our sponsors, partners, guests and staff.”
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