Polo Charity Cup : victory for Murus Sanctus
A beautiful final at the end of a rich sportive event – that sounds like one of the days we love most on the Apremont grounds. The concert of lovely Mariama in the splendid court of the farm arranged for a great combination of conviviality and sports as the conclusion to a very successful spring season.
The sportive success manifested itself from the beginning in the increasing number of teams that took part in the tournaments: There were eleven of them in this third springtime polo trilogy and they were able to keep up the suspense until the very end. Something everyone had expected, though, was the fourth (and easily attainable) victory of In The Wings facing Body Minute on Friday, thus ensuring their participation in the final. The truly exciting semi-final showed that both the experience and the will of the Argentinean handicap 9, Pancho Bensadon, were strong enough to defeat the French n° in Polo, Brieuc Rigaux.
Murus Sanctus had qualified itself two days earlier and for both teams, the final on Sunday represented a challenge of a hat- trick. In The Wings, the winner of the first two editions of this Charity Cup, aimed for a third victory in this tournament and at the same time, the first victory in a 2012 final. Murus Sanctus, on the other hand, had the aim to win the third tournament in 2012, after having been victorious in the PGH as well as the Laversine Cup at the beginning of June.
The much waited-for final ended with a score of 8 to 7 for Murus Sanctus, which makes the team the great overall winner of this year’s Triple Crown. Pancho Bensadon admitted that his team “knew that it was going to be a tough match, because we had been beaten by Murus Sanctus twice before. This final would have been a good opportunity for us to beat them, but it did not happen. Murus Sanctus is a great team and I believe they deserve the victory.”
The audience’s darling and star of the game, Pablo Llorente, showed all of his riding and playing skills once again by scoring the most beautiful goals of the match. “We liked the constellation of our team because we got along well together. It was clear, though, that it would be hard to win this final – Pancho is Pancho”, he said. After this triple victory in Chantilly, he is looking forward to playing in the UK next, and in St Tropez afterwards.
The exceptional final ended on a cozy note thanks to Mariama’s velvety voice that enriched the convivial evening, during which a satisfying amount of money was raised for UNICEF France & HADASSAH.
The polo season in Chantilly is far from being over, though, and for the first two weeks of July, the female polo players enter the grounds for the Ladies Polo Cup presented by the Porsche Centre of Roissy. Among the players will be the world’s second best female player, the Argentinean Lia Salvo (handicap 8). The access to the matches is free, and on week-ends they are commented. Details on www.poloclubchantilly.com
Progression
Murus Sanctus In the Wings
1 chuk. 2 1
2 chuk. 2 4
3 chuk. 4 4
4 chuk. 6 4
5 chuk. 8 7
Jessica Rodrigues
R&B Presse www.rbpresse.com