Bangkok--22 Mar--Anantara Hotels, Resorts & Spas
After four days of fun festivities and captivating elephant polo featuring ten teams and 40 players from all over the world including Miss Thailand, New Zealand All Black rugby players and pro-fessional polo players, the final day offered plenty of memorable moments.
The highly anticipated final was presided over by the King of Thailand's Royal representative, H.E. Privy Councilor, Air Chief Marshal Chalit Pukbhasuk.
The final match placed two stellar teams – Rueang Chang against King Power Duty Free - in a closely fought battle for the 14th King's Cup Elephant Polo trophy. Rueang Chang captained by Ed Story along with Taweesak Keereekaew and Prakorn Saejaw and King Power captained by Tom Claytor with Nattapong Pratumlee and Satid Wongkraso went head to head in a thrilling fi-nal.
The first half was dominated by Rueang Chang but no goals were scored. Things heated up in the second chukka with King Power battling to regain their King's Cup crown. Rueang Chang had looked good early on but in the second half King Power showed their prowess and their pro-fessional polo experience with Tom Claytor and Nattapong Pratumlee scoring all the goals in the second half.
With only one minute to go the game was 8-7 with King Power Captain Tom Claytor scoring the winning goal in the dying moments of the match, resulting in a final score of 9-7.
The exciting event has not only been about fun and games – a generous sum of THB 15 million was raised for various elephant charity projects bringing the total raised to over US$1,300,000 (THB 46 million).
Final Leaderboard for 2016 King's Cup Elephant Polo Tournament:
1. King Power Duty Free
2. Rueang Chang
3. Audemars Piguet & Citi Team (draw)
5. PricewaterhouseCoopers New Zealand All Blacks & Johnnie Walker Blue Label (draw)
7. Mekhong
8. Anantara Arabian Knights
9. Casillero Del Diablo
10. Anantara Hotels, Resorts and Spa