Over the past few days, the FIP World Championship qualifiers got underway in Sydney, Australia. Saturday saw the opening game day, with wins for Zone A’s Argentina and Australia. Argentina were the first to take to the field against the USA. The South American team made a great start, immediately taking the lead. The USA came back with might, but by the third chukka, Argentina had hold of the game with the goal difference broadening to 12-5½. But, the USA weren’t done yet and came back to score four times in the last two minutes, bringing the scoreboard to a more even 12-9½ at the final buzzer. The second match of the day was a much closer affair. The home team, Australia, went head to head with Spain in a match of two halves. As play progressed, it looked like Spain were in for the win, leading 9-7, but with mere minutes to go, and then an extra chukka as the match ended on a draw, the home team rode to victory with a score of 10-9.
Yesterday saw the opening stages for Zone B. England and India were the first to take to the field with the match very much falling in England’s favour. With a final score of 16-1, England made a substantial mark on the Zone. Later in the day, defending champions Chile beat New Zealand 9-2 in a fast-paced game. In the first couple of chukkas, the play was even, however the Chileans took advantage of every opportunity New Zealand dropped, ultimately trumping their rivals.
Zone A’s play continues tomorrow, Tuesday 24 October, where spectators will see Argentina vs Spain and Australia vs USA, whilst Zone B will continue on Wednesday with reigning champions Chile will take on India and New Zealand will be playing England.
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The XI FIP World Championship Teams:
Zone A
Australia: Jack Archibald, Alec White, Jacob Daniels, Daniel O’Leary, Jack Kiely, James Lester, Lachlan Gilmore, George Hill & Alexander Barnet
Spain: Pelayo Barazadi, Mario Gòmez, Antonio Ayesa, José Trénor, Jaime Serra & Ricardo Trujillo
Argentina: Tomás Panelo, Valentín Novillo Astrada, Ivan Maldonado, Ignacio Bello, Hector Guerrero, Lucio Fernandez Ocampo, Estanislao Grahn & Gernonimo Fanello
USA: Jesse Bray, Felipe Viana, Daniel Galindo, Kenneth Wright, Matías Gonzálex, Cari Scherer, Carlos Arellano II & Wesley Finalyson
Zone B
Chile: Pablo Villela, Francisco Martinez, Antonio Eguiguren, Jose Miguel Pereira, Ignacio Vial, Romano Vercellino, Andrés Vial, Jose Ignacio Martinez, Martín Arrau & Agustín Von Unger
New Zealand: Glenn Sherriff, Kim Brooks, Guy Higginson, Cody Forsyth, Nick Jeure, Henry Jones, Sam Martin, Jonny Jones, Adam Harvorth & Mark Duncan
England: Satnam Dhillon, Henry Porter, Peter Webb, Josh Cork, Ed Banner-Eve, Sam Gairdner, Jack Berner & Adolfo Casabal
India: Ravi Rathore, Dhruv Pal Godara, Angad Kalaan, Siddhant Sharma, Padmanabh Singh, Panav Kapur & Uday Kalaan
Photograph: England beat India 16-1 in the first qualifying matches of Zone B. By Marcos Cerdeira
