The tournament draw for the 2014 Fortune Heights Snow Polo World Cup at the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club (January 8-19) was executed and the playing schedule has been released with the United States team of Tommy Biddle (6), Pelon Escapite (6) and Del Walton (3) not taking to the snowy fields until the second day of competition.
The USA team fell into Zone 2 with Brazil, Canada, France, New Zealand and South Africa, and will play their opening game on January 9th against New Zealand (Sam Hopkinson, Christopher Brooks and Angus McKelvie). The US returns to play again on January when they face Brazil (Gustavo Garcia, William Rodrigues and Renato Junquira). The final preliminary match for the US team will be against France (Clement Delfosse, Pierre-Henri N’Goumou and Brieuc Rigaux) on January 13.
After sitting out January 14th, the quarterfinals will take place on the 15th and 16th. The semifinals are slated to take place on the 18th with the finals scheduled for the following day, January 19th.
In spite of the fact that the tournament is scheduled during Florida’s high goal season, a number of familiar names show up on the rosters with Canada (Brandon Phillips, Marcelo Abbiatti and Todd Offen) boasting the talents of Brandon Phillips (5) and Todd Offen (5) and Mexico (Julio Gracida, Valerio Aguilar and Carlos Gracida) fielding a team that includes Julio Gracida (5) and his uncle Carlos Gracida (6).
Australia (Edward Gould, Kelvin Johnson and Ruki Baillou), is led by 7-goaler Ruki Baillieu; England (Max Routledge, Jack Richardson and Max Charlton) appears to be betting on a youthful team.
Entrys by Chile (Ignacio Vial Mazieres, Juan Eduardo Jarmillo and Maitas Vial), South Africa (Chris MacKenzier, Leroux Hendricks and Gareth Evans), and Spain (Mario Gomez, Pascual Sande Vicuna and Martin Itturaspe) will all be trying to knock off the defending 2013 championship Hong Kong (Facundo Fernandez Llorente, John Fisher and Guillermo Terrera) lineup in the 12-day event.
Top seeded teams include Hong Kong in Group A (Hong Kong, Australia and Mexico); England in Group B (England, Chile and Spain); New Zealand in Group C (New Zealand, France and Brazil) and South Africa in Group D (South Africa, Canada and the United States).
Zone 1
Hong Kong
Australia
Mexico
England
Chile
Spain
Zone 2
New Zealand
France
Brazil
South Africa
Canada
United States