2009-10-25

Pilarà-Piaget polo team fall to the three-time champions in Hurlingham tournament

Pilarà-Piaget polo team at the seminfinal of Hurligham polo tournament

Pilará-Piaget polo team, led by Piaget polo ambassador Marcus Heguy, narrowly missed securing a place in the finals of the Hurlingham Open Championship Sunday (25 October), taking La Aguada into an extra period before finally falling to a golden goal that gave their opponents a 15-14 victory.

The Piaget-sponsored, 34-goal team battled effectively with higher-rated La Aguada, 37, throughout the thrilling semi-final match, maintaining a lead or keeping the game tied up in six of the eight regulation chukkas.

La Aguada led 4-2 in the first period, but in the second Pilará-Piaget held their opponents scoreless and equalised at 4-4. La Aguada went ahead again 8-7 in the third period, but Pilará-Piaget tied it up again 8-8 in the fourth.

The Piaget team caught fire and took over for the next three chukkas, leading 10-9. 11-10 and 13-11. La Aguada finally regained the lead 14-13 in the eighth period until, just seconds from what would have been the final bell, 10-goaler Marcos Heguy converted a spot penalty to equalise, forcing the match into an extra chukka.

La Aguada’s 10-goal Miguel Novillo Astrada scored the golden goal in the ninth chukka to give his team their 15-14 victory and a place in the finals against Ellerstina.

The Hurlingham Open is the second tournament in Argentina’s Triple Crown series, the highest-rated in the world. Playing only its second season, Pilará-Piaget polo team reached the finals of the first tournament, the Tortugas Open, before falling to the 40-goal team Ellerstina. The Piaget-sponsored side now goes into the greatest tournament of all, the Argentine Open Championship, starting 14 November.