The ninth annual La Martina Miami Beach Polo World Cup, the world’s largest and most prestigious Beach Polo competition, began the first day of the men’s tournament on Friday, as six teams took to the sands of South Beach for a day of gallant showmanship in front of a capacity crowd.
A talented La Martina team, comprised of Guillermo Steta, Santi Torres and Carlos Gracida, ran away from Merchant Hub (Tommy Kato, Jamie Morrison and Luis Escobar) with a 10-5 win. Santo Torres was a high scorer for La Martina with five goals.
A shoot-down, drawn-out battle between the team from The Raleigh and the team from Small Luxury Hotels of the World™ resulted in a 14-13 win for The Raleigh with Juan Monteverde and John Gobin combining efforts for nine goals. SLH 9-goaler, Kris Kampsen, scored seven times during his team’s loss.
The Grey Goose team rebounded from a 7-7 half-time score to beat the The James Royal Palm Hotel/Jet Blue team 19-14 in the final match of the day. Grey Goose’s Guille Usandizaga led all scoring with 11 goals. Oscar Mancini scored 10 goals for The James Royal Palm Hotel/Jet Blue team.
Play continues on Saturday on Miami Beach, between 20th and 22nd Streets, with a 1:00pm match-up between The Raleigh and The James Royal Palm Hotel/Jet Blue. Due to the tournament draw, La Martina will meet Merchant Hub again at 2:00pm followed by a 3:00pm match between Grey Goose and SLH.
Photo Credit: The Polo Life/Mitchell Zachs.
Match report courtesy of Alex Webbe.