2017 NPA LAGOS POLO
- Race for the prestigious Majekodunmi Cup starts Wednesday
After an enthralling first week capped by the emergence of Leighton Kings and STL 57 as champions of the Open Cup and Silver Cup respectively, the final week of the 2017 NPA Lagos Polo International Tournament begins today with Lagos La Mansuri and Ibadan Oluyole galloping off proceedings in the medium-goal Low Cup.
Other fixtures of the day in the tournament which has GTBank as main sponsor will see Lagos Balmoral International slugging it out with Kano Hago while Kano Nakudu and Lagos United battle for supremacy in the last match of the day.
A record 12 teams comprising seven Lagos teams are participating in the Low Cup while three teams from Kano and two from Ibadan complete the list.
Aside the home teams that are scheduled for action on Tuesday, Lagos Petrosmith, Lagos Eat N’ Go, Lagos Lintex and Caverton Sao Polo are the other home teams competing. Kano Agad and Ibadan Eleyele are the visiting teams.
The 12 teams are divided into four leagues of three teams with league winners progressing to the semifinals.
League 1 has Lintex, Petrosmith and Eat N’ Go while Agad, La Mansuri and Oluyole will jostle for the sole ticker in League 2.
Caverton Sao Polo, Balmoral and Hago are the teams in League 3 and League 4 has Nakudu, Eleyele and United.
Low Cup holders, Caverton Sao Polo look good to defend their title successfully with a balanced quartet of Seyi Oyinlola (0), Rotimi Makanjuola (+1), Abdulrahman Mohammed (+3) and 2016 MVP, Ahmadu Umar (+3).
They are however likely to face a strong challenge from Balmoral who will feature Luqman Adebayo (+1), Mohammed Dangote (-1), Kwame Isa (+3) and a yet to be announced two-golaer.
The prestigious Majekodunmi Cup will start on Wednesday with Lagos Fifth Chukker confronting Kano Keffi Ponys. Newly-formed Lagos Centaurs are the other team in the high-goal event.
Centaurs will be formed by Bode Makanjuola (+1), Bashir Dantata (+3), Leroux Hendriks (+5) and Tom De Bruin (+7). Keffi Ponys have Ahmed Wadada (+1), Bello Buba (+4), Santiago Astrada (+6) and Alfredo Bigati, an Argentine six-goaler who will be playing in Nigeria for the first time.
Lagos Fifth Chukker is made up of Babangida Hassan (+3), Adamu Atta (+3), Santiago Cernadas and Manuel Crespo, a seven-goaler voted as the Majekodunmi Cup MVP in 2016.
