Bangkok, March 12th, 2017: After four days of fun festivities and elephant polo, including ten teams from all over the world featuring New Zealand All Black rugby players, professional polo players and celebrities, the final day of the King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament offered plenty of memorable moments and a new reigning champion.
The highly anticipated final, presided over by the King of Thailand’s Royal representative, His Excellency Air Chief Marshal Chalit Pukbhasuk, Privy Councillor, placed two stellar teams – Mekhong with King Power – in a closely fought battle.
Mekhong’s talented Kalaan brothers, Uday and Angad, along with Cameron Humphries, and King Power captained by Tom Claytor with Nattapong Pratumlee and Satid Wongkraso went trunk to trunk early in the game setting the scene for a closely fought first chukker. Both sides scored multiple goals with the Kalaan brothers keeping the reigning champs on the defense fin-ishing the first half with Mekhong in the lead by one point at 8 goals to 7.
King Power fought back fervently in the second half to gain a comfortable lead and look set to retain their title but with only minutes left in the second chukker, the Kalaan brothers scored three consecutive goals resulting in a final score of 11-10 and a brand new champion of the King’s Cup.
The exciting event has not only been about fun and games – a generous sum of THB 4 million was raised for various elephant charity projects during the event bringing a total sum raised to date to US$1.4 million (BHT 50 million)
Final Day – Scores
BENIHANA vs Anantara 4-1
Arabian Knights vs CITI 7-4
PWC All Blacks vs IBM 11-10
CDD vs JW Blue Label 10-5
Mekhong vs King Power 11-10
Final Leaderboard for 2017 King’s Cup Elephant Polo Tournament:
1. Mekhong
2. King Power
3. Casillero Del Diablo
4. Johnny Walker Blue Label
5. Arabian Knights
6. Citi
7. PWC All Blacks
8. IBM
9. BENIHANA
10. Anantara
