英闻天下——212 snow Fun Like Polo

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　　The 24 musicians dressed in red jackets and white caps flew to China from Argentina to mark the start of the 2013 Snow Polo World Cup. This year it's being held in east China's Tianjin city.

 

　　Each team has three players on horseback. They use a long mallet¹ to hit an orange ball through the opponent's goal.

 

　　The game's usually played on grass. But in winter some play on snow. Which has it's own challenges.

 

　　"The game, in general is a lot more scrappy, not so clean."

 

　　"My name's Oliver Hipwood and I played number two on the England team."

 

　　"It's a lot of luck too, you know, you're trying to keep the ball away from the horses and out of a hole and not hit it out and on top of that the ball moves in the air, it doesn't always fly true."

 

　　There are several snow polo competitions around the world. The organisers of this one say it's the biggest with 12 international teams competing. Santiago Gaztambide is coach for the Argentinians.

 

　　"This tournament, or what they're doing at this club is unbelievable. They're going so fast, you can't imagine. It's like the buildings here in China. They grow like - you come after three months and you see a new building. You know? It's unbelievable."

 

　　The buildings around this club are growing, too. In fact, they're the reason the polo competition exists.

 

　　"My name is Derek Reid and I'm Director of Polo Operations here at Tianjin Golden Metropolitan² Polo Club."

 

　　"There's going to be a self sufficient³ little city, I guess with offices and high end shopping and hotels and a 117 storey tower."

 

　　That tower will be one of the tallest skyscrapers⁴ in the world.

 

　　This is all part of the huge Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan development project, which needs many mega-rich people to invest⁵.

 

　　The organisers here are hoping the sport of polo will attract them.

 

　　The final of the Snow Polo world cup will take place on Sunday.

 

　　For CRI, I'm Dominic Swire.

 

　　The snow polo world championships wrap up on February 3. More information about the event can be found at metropolitanpoloclub.com.

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