Young polo stars get chance to parade their best in junior national team

The young talents, who shone at the Rift Valley/Swinburn Cups Championships, were among those selected into the new junior national team.

The team of four budding youngsters will face Zambia in the Schools International Championships at Manyatta Polo Club in Gilgil from Friday to Sunday.

They’ll also play test matches against the Zambians on Friday and Saturday before the epic match on Sunday.

Among them is 15-year-old Archie Camm, who was instrumental in the Sosian Energy team of Gideon Moi, Kelvin Jumba and Callum Shaw to finish runner-up in the Rift Valley Cup behind eventual winners Off-Beat Safaris.

Camm scored crucial goals that enabled Sosian Energy to finish in a respectable position in the Rift Valley Cup.

Against the Zambians, he will play in position two. Other members of the team are Vester Murray at position one, Sacha Camm in position three and Lochie Murray, who’ll play in position four.

The match comes at a time when the National Polo Association is trying to churn out youngsters to take up available spaces with well-planned international assignments for exposure in the fight for top honours. While announcing the team, Kenya Polo Association President Jamie Murray said, “That’s the way to go to preserve the continuity of Kenyan polo”.

Camm’s teammate Gideon Moi praised the youngster as one of the future pillars of Kenyan polo.

“The future of Kenyan polo is bright with the calibre of such youngsters, as it lies with them. We also need to encourage them into the game,” Gideon said at Manyatta Polo Club in Gilgil over the weekend on the sidelines of the Six-Goal International match between Kenya and Zimbabwe, which the hosts emerged victorious.

Zimbabwean position three player Matthews Moxon praised the standards of the game in the country despite their loss.

“Kenyan polo standards are good. And we’ll come back again as we wait for the Kenyan side to make a reciprocal visit to Harare next year,” said Moxon.

Zimbabwean 15-year-old youngster Murray Wholer described Kenyan polo as one that many youngsters would like to compete in.

“I came to play here (Gilgil) and would like to come again,” he said.

Other Kenyan youngsters known to have made a mark in Kenyan polo internationally are the Nzomo duo Jadini and Amani and Will Millar.