The 2nd State Women's Polo Tournament 2023 is officially underway

Imphal (Manipur) [India], March 18 : The second State Women's Polo Tournament 2023 which formally opened on Thursday by Khangabok MLA, Surajkumar Okram along with Olympian athlete Ksh.Thoiba, Rk. Tutusana, IPS Director MPTC and Dr S.Joykumar Singh, Ex-Director Vety and A H Services is underway.
Five teams of Chingkheihunba Polo Clubs, namely, Laman Polo Club, K&MM Riding School, MPSC Polo Team and Imphal Riding Club, are participating in the tournament.
In Thursday's opening match, Laman Polo Club outwitted K&MM Riding School 8-2 goals to gallops into the semi-final of the 2nd State Women's Polo Tournament 2023 organised by Manipur Horse Riding & Polo Association at MapalKangieibung, Polo Ground.
Laman Polo Club showed their eagerness quite early in the game and made them count as well with Ranjita Yumnam and Y. Anjali hitting a goal each in the first chukker. Enjoying their ride, Laman races up with Lucy. Scoring two more goals in the second chukker. Shria Y managed to get one goal for the K&MM Riding team in the second chukker and S. Ngounu fetched the second goal in the fourth chukker.
Laman who has been progressing well consolidates their score with Y. Anjali, Nena Kamei, Mona Kamei and Ranjita Yumnam scoring 4 goals each for the victory. In today's match, MPSC Polo Team will be taking on Imphal Riding: Club in the first semi-final while Chingkheihunba Polo Club will be facing Laman Polo Club in the second semi-final.
N. Ibungochoubi Singh member of the Manipur horse-riding and Polo Association emphasized the current scenario of Polo in India. While speaking to ANI he said, "The Manipur Polo International has an objective. In fact, the polo played in the different parts of the world is very different played by professionals around the world we are told that about 90 countries are playing the game of polo and the standard of the game and plus the infrastructure under the new trend is now we already have in Delhi about 40 handicap matches being played last winters,"Ibungochoubi said.
"And Manipur as we know that the horses are small the ponies are small. It is in fact we don't have the handicapping system also in Manipur whereas globally the handicapping structure is there it is more of a festival we can say to promote the traditional game at the same time we are more worried about the dwindling number of Manipuri ponies. We already know the case that number of ponies, the population has drastically decreased. The movement of young players the polo tournaments the young boys and girls taking part, they have played a very important role in reminding us that it is important for us to save the Manipuri pony breed from extinction."