Jaguar Land Rover is the new headline sponsor of the 2014 Land Rover Africa Cup Polo Tournament.
To be held at the prestigious Inanda Club in Gauteng, South Africa, over the weekend of July 18 to 20, the Land Rover Africa Cup normally attracts representative players from Ghana, Nigeria, Egypt and this year possibly Kenya. Considered one of the top polo events on the continent, the tournament sees eight teams compete in a knock-out format, with the plate and final taking place on Sunday afternoon the 20th July. At stake is the coveted Land Rover Africa Cup trophy, and a host of sponsored prizes.
“We’re extremely excited to be taking the reins of the Land Rover Africa Cup,” says Peter Biven, Marketing and Communications Director of Jaguar Land Rover South Africa and sub-Sahara Africa. “Thanks to its prestige and excitement, it is a great fit for Land Rover and a perfect platform to show off our latest products. Polo certainly reaches the right kind of clientele for us and in an elitist sport like polo, robustly capable and truly luxurious SUVs are de rigueur.”
The sport is synonymous with power, beauty and style and one of the highlights of Sunday will be a sprint race between a top-playing polo pony with rider and a Range Rover Sport …two very different kinds of horsepower!
“Our association with sponsors in the past five years has successfully grown the Africa Cup brand,” says Paul Oosthuizen, General Manager of the Inanda Club. “We expect even greater growth through the Land Rover partnership. The essence of the tournament is a quintessentially African occasion offering excellent brand association, corporate, lifestyle and social entertainment.”
The Inanda Club is celebrating its 80th anniversary this year and 2014 will also mark the 25th year of hosting the Africa Cup. The last five years has seen the event marketed on a larger scale with participating brands and sponsors. There is an important corporate social investment aspect to the tournament including a potential curtain raiser match between development teams from the Free State and Highveld. Inanda’s rising star, Zompie Totetsi, will be playing for the development team.
“Polo and Land Rover are naturally complementary: both require enormous performance, capability and stamina, and are robustly elegant. Put both in an African context and the Land Rover Africa Cup will become one of the highlights of the continent’s equestrian calendar. We’re looking forward to a weekend of sensational polo,” says Biven.