116th Campeonato Argentino Abierto de Polo

Yesterday afternoon, I had the privilege of attending the final match of the Argentine Polo Open in Las Canitas. This is my third time attending the match. Tickets to this function are extremely difficult to get, plus they are very expensive by Argentine standards. This exclusive event attracts the creme de la creme of Buenos Aires society and is more of a social event than a sporting match. Most attendees dress up to impress, wearing their expensive jewelry and clothes. My friend Doug and I arrived early and, not even knowing it, had been given front row seats. In past years, the mayor of Buenos Aires and many TV personalities, politicians and other celebrities were in attendance.

Polo is actually a pretty fascinating sport and the only one I can think of that pairs animals against animals, head-to-head. Our match - the championship - featured the Ellerstina team against the La Dolfina team. The match is broken up into eight chukkas, which last seven minutes each. Each team has four players and, like soccer, the objective is to get the ball in between the opponent's goal (but in this case using sticks).

The match was very fast-paced and close throughout. Early on, one of the players took a pretty bad fall off of his horse and the horse sustained a pretty bad injury also. In fact, the entire crowd (about 2-3 thousand) gasped and remained silent as the ambulance came to take the player and the horse off the field.

By the last chukka, the score was tied at 15-15 and it went into overtime. At this point, whichever team scores the next goal wins. We didn't realize this and were wondering why so many people were standing next to us at the entry to the field. Well, the minute the winning team scored, hundreds of people jumped over the brush onto the field to congratulate the winning team.

Argentina has a reputation for having the best polo ponies and players in the world and this match helped to prove this claim to fame. The event was covered by ESPN and will be televised on many sports channels all over the world. Enjoy the video below and the photos above.