British settlers in the Argentine pampas started
practising it during their free time. Among them, David Shennan is credited
with having organised the first formal polo game of the country in 1875, at
Estancia El Negrete, located in the province of Buenos Aires.
The sport spread fast between the skilful gauchos and
several clubs opened in the following years in the towns of Venado Tuerto,
Cañada de Gómez, Quilmes, Flores and later (1888) Hurlingham. In 1892 The River
Plate Polo Association was founded and constituted the basis for the current
Asociación Argentina de Polo. In the Olympic Games held in Paris in 1924 a team
composed by Juan Miles, Enrique Padilla, Juan Nelson, Arturo Kenny, G. Brooke
Naylor and A. Peña obtained the first gold medal for the country's olympic
history; this also occurred in Berlín 1936 with players Manuel Andrada, Andrés
Gazzotti, Roberto Cavanagh, Luis Duggan, Juan Nelson, Diego Cavanagh and
Enrique Alberdi.
From then on, the game spread powerfully across the country
and Argentina is credited globally as the mecca of polo, mainly because
Argentina is notably the country with the largest number ever of 10 handicap
players in the world.
Five great teams were able to ensemble together four 10
handicap players in order to make a 40 handicap team: Coronel Suárez, 1975,
1977–1979 (Alberto Heguy, Juan Carlos Harriott, Alfredo Harriot and Horacio
Heguy); La Espadaña, 1989–1990 (Carlos Gracida, Gonzalo Pieres, Alfonso Pieres
y Ernesto Trotz Jr.); Indios Chapaleufú, 1992–1993 (Bautista Heguy, Gonzalo
Heguy, Horacio Heguy Jr. and Marcos Heguy); La Dolfina, 2009–2010 (Adolfo
Cambiaso Jr., Lucas Monteverde, Mariano Aguerre y Bartolomé Castagnola);
Ellerstina, 2009 (Facundo Pieres, Gonzalo Pieres Jr., Pablo Mac Donough and
Juan Martín Nero).
Argentina was host of the ninth edition of the World Polo
Championship (for teams of up to 14 goals) at the Estancia Grande Polo Club, in
the province of San Luis in October 2011.
The three major polo tournaments in Argentina, known as
"Triple Corona" ("Triple Crown"), are Hurlingham Polo Open,
Tortugas Polo Open, Palermo Polo Open. Polo season usually last from October to
December.
Polo then found popularity throughout the rest of the
Americas like Brazil, Chile, Mexico, and the United States of America.
1 comment:
I was really hoping to see a review of polo shirts.
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