Polo: Praises to Samurai for their resilience after victory

 

The two-week Kenya International Polo Tournament ended at the Nairobi Polo Club in Jamhuri at the weekend.

Credit goes to Samurai for lifting the 12-Goal tournament that was hotly contested by local and international players of reputable handicaps.

Samurai showed resilience as they waded through the journey to bag glory with maximum points. They emerged champions with six points after beating R.J Polo 7.5-6, Royal Salute 4.5-4 and Samsung 7.5-5.

South African international and handicap five player Brad MacGibbon and Nairobi Polo Club captain Raphael Nzomo both showed their true mettle as they led Samurai to the deserved win.

Apart from the overall victory, Samurai also produced the Most Valuable Player in Craig Millar who was superb at both sides of the posts.

Samurai also won the Best Playing Pony award which was bagged by Ruby owned by Nzomo and ridden by Mac Gibbon.

“We were able to achieve all this because of immense teamwork. We are also happy that we brought in an international player (MacGibbon), who proved a force to reckon with in the pitch,” Nzomo said.

Space & Style were the real deal in the subsidiary category. Led by Baringo Senator Gideon Moi, Space & Style won all their matches to win the subsidiary cup at the venue.

Vast experience

Space & Style beat Ultimate 4-1.5 and Mombasa Island Cargo Terminal (MICT) with a similar margin to sail to the final where they edged Samsung Galaxy 6-4.5 to lift the cup.

Apart from MacGibbon, the tournament attracted other international players including Eric Stubbs from Zambia, Guy Watson, Duncan Watson, and Johan Du Preez all from South Africa.

Duncan who featured for Samsung, has vast polo experience. He has played professional polo in the US, UK, Argentina, Australia, New Zealand, Nigeria and Malaysia. [Erick Ochieng’]