The Land Rover Africa Cup takes over Jozi’s polo scene

The fiercely competitive tournament will see representative teams from South Africa, Egypt, Kenya, Nigeria, Uganda, Zimbabwe and the defending champions, Ghana, compete for the Land Rover Africa Cup trophy.

Polo players need great hand-eye co-ordination, agility, fitness and strength, as well as excellent horsemanship.

“While polo is a sport which generally requires considerable wealth to progress to a high level, there is also a great opportunity to develop and assist young polo players in South Africa,” said Paul Oosthuizen, Inanda Club general manager.

The Inanda Development Cup took place during the last weekend in May as part of the build-up to August’s Land Rover Africa Cup crescendo. The tournament is to help talented, underprivileged and aspiring polo players to take part in the sport and grow into professionals.

Click here to read more about the Inanda Development Cup.

This is the second time that the Land Rover African Cup will be hosted at the Inanda Club, and it promises to be impressive.

“One of the things that we have to wow the crowds this year that is unique to the Land Rover Africa Cup is that we’ve got the Horse versus Machine Race,” hinted Craig James, polo manager at the Inanda Club.

Guests will be able to see a 100m dash between one of Inanda’s finest thoroughbred horses and the fastest Land Rover yet – the Land Rover Sport SVR.

“There’s a lot of hype around it, the crowd normally gets behind the horse, everyone’s rooting for the horse but that Land Rover’s quite quick, so we’ll see how we go this year,” he chuckled.

James believes that the Land Rover Africa Cup is doing wonders for the country.

“South Africa is a beautiful country, Johannesburg is such a friendly town and with these guys coming here and playing in the event there is pre-and post-media that is going into Africa and not only Africa, but into the rest of the world, polo-wise. I think it’s just creating awareness around South Africa as a polo destination, and Johannesburg as a holiday destination.”

The Land Rover Africa Cup will take place from 14 to 16 August from 10am at the Inanda Club.

Details: www.inandaclub.co.za or www.computicket.co.za; @LandRoverCup