Hong Kong student Gigi Chan goes from polo novice to UK university winning captain in 10 months
- The 20-year-old Exeter University undergraduate picked up the sport from her father during a visit to Tianjin, China in the spring of 2019
- She led the Exeter Corita squad to victory in UK’s SUPA National Universities Winter Arena Polo Championships
Hong Kong student Gigi Chan, inspired by her father, took up polo in the spring of 2019. In less than a year, she was winning trophies, captaining her university to victory in a prestigious intercollegiate tournament in England.
The 20-year-old’s rise is seen as a triumph for the fledgling Hong Kong Beginners Cup programme, founded by Hong Kong lawyer and polo enthusiast Andrew Leung with the aim of grooming future players.
“It all started a year ago [in April] when I went to the polo club in Tianjin for four days, basically tagging along with the Hong Kong Beginners Cup players,” said Chan, who is in her third year at Exeter University studying business and management and has experience on a horse as a show jumper.
“I have been riding since I was eight and tried polo a few times but didn’t really get into it until a year ago.”
Chan was part of a four-strong Exeter Corita squad at the UK’s Schools & Universities Polo Association National Arena Championships at the Rugby Polo Club with teammates Francesca Miller-Lakin, Celia Bristow and Emilio Quiroz.
Arena polo is an indoor version of the game played on dirt on a smaller playing field with three players on each team.
The Exeter team emerged triumphant in one of the beginner categories, with Warwick and Cambridge Universities finishing second and third respectively.
Chan said she started taking the sport seriously in September, training once a week and buying a short stick to practise hitting the ball in her garden.
“It was a really good experience, we really bonded as a team and it was great to get to the final and win,” said Chan.
The Hong Kong Beginners Cup completed its second tournament last autumn, with Chan’s father Julian among the first batch of players who would make regular trips to the Tianjin Goldin Metropolitan Polo Club for training.
The programme involves taking novice players, many of whom had never been on a horse before, and turning them into competent polo players within 10 months – culminating in the Hong Kong Beginners Cup.
Leung, whose father is former racehorse trainer Stephen Leung Sik-lun, said he hoped more Hong Kong youngsters would take an interest in polo and follow in the footsteps of Chan.
“I’m so proud that through the Hong Kong Beginners Cup and Hong Kong polo development we can introduce polo to the next generation, who have been inspired by the bravery and adventurous spirit of their parents,” said Leung.
“Hopefully it can put Hong Kong polo, or the grass roots of Hong Kong polo, into larger pastures.
“I am also particularly proud of Gigi’s achievement of being selected as the captain of her mixed-gender university arena polo team. Polo has traditionally been portrayed as a masculine sport, however Gigi has shown that in this sport the women can easily outshine the men.”
