Britain, France, Germany & Spain fight for a place in Sydney
This weekend sees the beginning of the French summer season at the Chantilly Polo Club with two international events: the European qualification tournament for the FIP XI World Championships in Sydney this October, and the first Ladies European Championship; two events that will be held simultaneously from 28 April to 7 May 2017.
The FIP XI World Championship tournament will see the top four nations: Britain, Spain, Germany and France battle it out to pick up two tickets allocated to the Europeans for the 14 goal XI FIP World Championship which will be played from 17 to 29 October in Australia’s oldest and most prestigious Club, the Sydney Polo Club.
These qualifiers won’t be a walk in the park for any of the teams, as each of these nations has a strong chance of qualifying.
It will be the same for the four ladies teams who will participate in the Ladies European Championship, that highlights the extraordinary explosion of ladies polo, a development that is increasing each and every year. Here too the competition will be tough between the might of the English, Italian, French and German teams.
Matches will take place alternately with World Championships play-offs on the eight magnificent fields at Chantilly Polo Club, meaning that at least one international game will take place every day between 28 April and 7 May. On the final day, both tournaments will culminate in a face-off on the honorary 1st Field where spectators will find out the winners of the European Championship and the two teams that will be elected to go to Sydney.
The iconic event marks the opening of an exciting season, which will continue with the 12 goal Triple-Crown, seeing the return of the great Argentinian players, and on 25 June with the Charity Cup for Just World International. After the summer and the season in Deauville, this international season will end with the Open during the first three weeks of September.
FIP XI World Championships Zone C:
England: Satnam Dhillon (5), Will Lucas (4), Mark Baldwin (3) & Henry Porter (2)
France: Clement Delfosse (5), Pierre Henri N’Gournou (5), Patrick Paillol (5), Eduaord Pan (4), Robert Strach (4), Florent Garneau (3), Adrien Le Gallo (3), Julien Reynes (3), Conventin Mauler (1) & Alex Sztarkman (1)
Germany: Heinrich Dumrath (5), Thomas Winter (4), Maximilian Bosch (3), Caeser Crasemann (3) & Casper Crasemann (3)
Spain: Pelayo Berazadi (5), Mario Gomez (4), Antonio Ayesa (3), Nicolás Ruiz Guiñazu (3), Jose Trenor & Luis Benjumea (1)
FIP Ladies European Championship Teams:
France (9): Léa Siboni (0), Caroline Anier (5), Charlotte Garaud (3) & Adéle Renauldon (1)
England (10): Angela Robb (0), Suzannah Harvey (0), Lottie Lamacraft (5) & Lucy Coddington (5)
Italy (11): Ginevra Visconti Bassetti (1), Maria Vittoria Marchiorello (3), Ginevra D’Orazio (3) & Constanza Marchiorello (4)
Germany (12): Laura Gissler-Weber (3), Mike Hoelty (3), Naomi Schroeder (3) & Tahnee Schroeder (3)