Fresh from the engrossing Abuja Carnival Polo tournament and the Jos Winter Polo Tournament, clubs across the country are buzzing as participating teams perfect strategies ahead of the 2024 Niger Delta Polo Festival billed to blast off on January14 at the old GRA Polo Ground in Port Harcourt, Rivers State.
President Port Harcourt Polo Club, Ebi Diriyai, confirmed this much, stating that preparations to host the international polo event is ‘in fulfilment of our commitment to deliver the best and biggest Polo tournament that will place Rivers and Nigeria on the map of global reckoning for sports, tourism and business’.
He added: “While we appreciate our esteemed sponsors for this robust partnership and several others, we want to declare that the 2024 tournament is still open for both local and international business partnership participation.”
As part of the elaborate plans to host a befitting polo tournament, the club has been consulting with stakeholders, corporate sponsors and benefactors of the foremost polo club that was established in 1972 as the premier polo club in the entire South East and South -South regions of the country.
Diriyai also noted that the tournament, apart from celebrating the game of kings, the week-long long event will also showcase and celebrate the cultural heritage and the peaceful nature of the state.
He assured that the tournament will attract the best of polo players’ world-over and will be an avenue to showcase the tourism and economic potentials of Rivers state and the Niger Delta region as well as an avenue for business networking.
“We will have the best of the best Polo; the finest Polo players will be here in Rivers State and they will be playing on this field,” he said.“We will also have the best of entertainment in the evenings; we have people coming from all over the world
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“So we are showcasing Rivers State, we are showcasing the culture of our people; by extension we are also showcasing the Niger Delta. So, what everybody should expect is an A-list artist, A-list Polo, A-list entertainment.”
Already, over twenty top teams including former champions, determined regulars and ambitious newcomers loaded with the best hands in Nigeria and their foreign counterparts are leading the pilgrimage to the Garden City for the glamorous fiesta.
Major prizes at stake during the festival include King Diette-Spiff Cup which is the event’s biggest prize, OB Lulu Briggs Cup and T.Y Danjuma Cup, and King T.J.T Princewill Cup among others.
A release by the Tournament Committee, further disclosed that the 2024 edition would be a follow up Golden Jubilee Tournament last year, as traditional sponsors and other benefactors have rallied around the club, to host a successful polo extravaganza.
Last year, 25 top teams with all the big names in the noble game of kings and foreign professionals from Europe and Argentina, participated in the Golden Jubilee Anniversary festival with teams from Kaduna, Lagos, Yola, Nigeria Navy and hosts, Port Harcourt, carting home the top laurels.
The fact that tourists from abroad and polo enthusiasts from other parts of the country attend this festival annually; attest to the immense tourism and social values of the exciting game of kings in the oil-rich region and Nigeria. The 2024 edition promises much more.
As a Grade A event and the first polo tournament of the year, the biggest attraction of this Niger Delta polo festival in the Garden City, lies in its regional appeal, which for years has been the pride of Edo, Delta, Bayelsa, Akwa- Ibom, Cross Rivers and host Rivers states respectively.
