Azernews.Az

By Amina Nazarli

World Polo and ARAF-Elite Horse & Polo Club will jointly organize the first ever FIP Arena Polo European Championship in Baku on September 4-12.

The competition will feature Azerbaijani, Irish, Swiss, Italian, German and Spanish teams.

Azerbaijan was awarded the event by the FIP (international Polo Federation) at the general assembly in Buenos Aires in December 2014.

World Polo has organized over 100 Polo Tournaments on grass, sand, and snow, including 2 FIP World Championships and 2 FIP European Grass Championships, one of which was the first ever European Championship in Berlin 1987.

Azerbaijanis have a history heritage of playing equestrian sports like Chovgan, the original form of polo dating back thousands of years. Chovgan is still played in Azerbaijan to this day.

This ancient game has been included in the List of Intangible Cultural Heritage of UNESCO during the 8th Session of UNESCO Intergovernmental Committee for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, which was held in Baku in 2013.

Since 2006, the Chovgan Presidential Cup has been held every December.

Azerbaijan has been a member of the Federation of International Polo since 2013.

That year, the Arena Polo World Cup was held in Azerbaijan under the theme "Bringing Polo Home," with the participation of teams from Britain, USA, Argentina and Germany.

The second Polo World Cup was held in the country in 2014, where Argentina took the first place and European Union the second. Azerbaijan stood third.

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Amina Nazarli is AzerNews’ staff journalist, follow her on Twitter: @amina_nazarli

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