On Saturday April 19th, the finals of the 10th annual Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa polo tournament presented by CasaLife magazine were played on the Casa de Campo polo fields, an occasion accompanied by the traditional party and prize-giving ceremony.
Here we bring you an account of the final games written by Casa de Campo’s own “Mr Sporting Life”, Calixto García-Vélez, as well as many more photos of the special occasion.
The Finals, by Calixto García-Vélez
Final #1: Azimut vs. Casa de Campo
Azimut Yachts sailed from the tranquil waters of the Marina Casa de Campo to the tempestuous action packed fields of Casa de Campo this Easter Saturday, as the Azimut Yachts polo team took on the Casa de Campo polo team in the finals of the 10th annual Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa polo tournament. The low goal tournament pitted two evenly matched teams that had battled it out over several days of matches to meet each other at the finals.
The Azimut polo team anchored by Casa de Campo’s own Cali García-Vélez alongside Jorge Serra from Spain, Omer Karebey from the USA and Fransisco Garrigo from the Dominican Republic (stepping in for the injured Herbert Schoderböck from Austria) was truly an international team.
The Casa de Campo polo team on the other hand featured four very strong and aggressive players in Dean Colley and Marcelo Doria visiting from New York, Marco Zubrod a transplanted German boxing champion now a dolphin and whale trainer in Puerto Plata and Ramon Espinal a stalwart of the Dominican National Polo Team.
The match players seemed to be fueled by the early afternoon heat and were quite aggressive and intense. Casa de Campo took an early lead on strong play by all of its players and two long distance goals by Ramon Espinal. However, Azimut took advantage of the fouls generated by Casa de Campo and converted several foul shots to send the match into overtime. Both teams had several opportunities to score the golden overtime goal, but in the end a powerful penalty shot by Cali García-Vélez decided the match in Azimuts favor.
Jorge Serra was the catalyst for the Azimut team charging up and down the field on both offense and defense, as he battled game MVP Dean Colley and a very aggressive Marco Zubrod. Although tempers flared on the field all was forgotten at the conclusion of the match as players joked with each other at the trophy presentation.
Final #2: La Chamuscada vs. El Pitirri
Alejandro Tirado’s La Chamuscada and Rafa Perez Diez’s El Pitirri took to the field in the tenth edition of the Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa polo tournament presented by CasaLife magazine.
Both teams based out of Benerito came to the finals by unlikely circumstances, yet both proved to be more than worthy as they provided the large crowd with six periods of non stop action.
In the first chukker Flaco Maldonado got the scoring started for Pitirri with two quick goals before the eventual tournament MVP, Cesar Crespo, could answer with two goals of his own, taking the score to 2-2.
The second chukker was dominated by Chamuscada players Denis Santana and Cesar Crespo as each scored a goal to extend their lead. Score: 4-2.
The third chukker belonged to Cesar Crespo who dazzled the crowd with three huge penalty shots that seemed to de-moralize the Pitirri players. Score: 7-2
When it looked like the game was over and Chamuscada would gallop off to an easy win, Carlos Cortes and Rafa Perez each scored a goal to keep the crowd interested. But just as Rafa Perez Diez was rallying his troops two more booming foul shots from Cesar Crespo put the final nails in the coffin, score: 9-4.
The last chukker was just a prelude to the Chamuscada team celebration at the trophy presentations as an un-relenting Pitirri team pulled out all stops and scored twice one by Flaco Maldonado and one by the very fortunate Julio Lopez who took a spectacular spill as his horse flipped over him after they both hit the ground on a very hard bump with Denis Santana.
Final score 10-6
Cesar Crespo scored eight of his team’s goals and was named MVP.
In the end Chamuscada owes a large debt of gratitude to Tony Rivera who lent Denis Santana his polo string which was the deciding factor in Chamuscada’s success.
The 10th annual Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa was sponsored by Casa de Campo Hotel, SILGON, Royal Salute, La Enoteca, Moët & Chandon, Belvedere Vodka, JMMB Dominicana, Jeep, Azimut, JetBlue, Central Romana Corporation, Casa de Campo Real Estate, Stella Artois, Crema, Heli-Tours, Events Destination Management (EDM), Costa Farms, 3R Elementos, Rústicos & Mas, Flux and Ritmo Social as Media Partner, among others.
Thank you very much to each and every one of our sponsors as well as everyone who helped with the organization, we couldn’t have done it without you. And special thanks to Calixto Garcia-Velez, who took on the unenviable task of organizing all the teams and games.
Photo taken with the drones of “Point of View”
Also thank you to “Point of View”, a new business based in the Marina Casa de Campo who joined the event with two drones to cover the action from the sky. Point of View offer aerial photography services for events, architecture, security and surveying, contact them at (809) 465-5099. Here are a few more images taken by Point of View (a pretty cool aerial video is coming soon): DCIM100MEDIADCIM100MEDIADCIM100MEDIADCIM100MEDIADCIM100MEDIA
Spanish
On Saturday April 19th, the finals of the 10th annual Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa polo tournament presented by CasaLife magazine were played on the Casa de Campo polo fields, an occasion accompanied by the traditional party and prize-giving ceremony.
Here we bring you an account of the final games written by Casa de Campo’s own “Mr Sporting Life”, Calixto García-Vélez, as well as many more photos of the special occasion.
Azimut Yachts sailed from the tranquil waters of the Marina Casa de Campo to the tempestuous action packed fields of Casa de Campo this Easter Saturday, as the Azimut Yachts polo team took on the Casa de Campo polo team in the finals of the 10th annual Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa polo tournament. The low goal tournament pitted two evenly matched teams that had battled it out over several days of matches to meet each other at the finals.
The Azimut polo team anchored by Casa de Campo’s own Cali García-Vélez alongside Jorge Serra from Spain, Omer Karebey from the USA and Fransisco Garrigo from the Dominican Republic (stepping in for the injured Herbert Schoderböck from Austria) was truly an international team. The Casa de Campo polo team on the other hand featured four very strong and aggressive players in Dean Colley and Marcelo Doria visiting from New York, Marco Zubrod a transplanted German boxing champion now a dolphin and whale trainer in Puerto Plata and Ramon Espinal a stalwart of the Dominican National Polo Team. The match players seemed to be fueled by the early afternoon heat and were quite aggressive and intense. Casa de Campo took an early lead on strong play by all of its players and two long distance goals by Ramon Espinal. However, Azimut took advantage of the fouls generated by Casa de Campo and converted several foul shots to send the match into overtime. Both teams had several opportunities to score the golden overtime goal, but in the end a powerful penalty shot by Cali García-Vélez decided the match in Azimuts favor. Jorge Serra was the catalyst for the Azimut team charging up and down the field on both offense and defense, as he battled game MVP Dean Colley and a very aggressive Marco Zubrod. Although tempers flared on the field all was forgotten at the conclusion of the match as players joked with each other at the trophy presentation. Final #2: La Chamuscada vs. El Pitirri
Alejandro Tirado’s La Chamuscada and Rafa Perez Diez’s El Pitirri took to the field in the tenth edition of the Casa de Campo Copa Semana Santa polo tournament presented by CasaLife magazine.
Both teams based out of Benerito came to the finals by unlikely circumstances, yet both proved to be more than worthy as they provided the large crowd with six periods of non stop action. In the first chukker Flaco Maldonado got the scoring started for Pitirri with two quick goals before the eventual tournament MVP, Cesar Crespo, could answer with two goals of his own, taking the score to 2-2. The second chukker was dominated by Chamuscada players Denis Santana and Cesar Crespo as each scored a goal to extend their lead. Score: 4-2. The third chukker belonged to Cesar Crespo who dazzled the crowd with three huge penalty shots that seemed to de-moralize the Pitirri players. Score: 7-2 When it looked like the game was over and Chamuscada would gallop off to an easy win, Carlos Cortes and Rafa Perez each scored a goal to keep the crowd interested. But just as Rafa Perez Diez was rallying his troops two more booming foul shots from Cesar Crespo put the final nails in the coffin, score: 9-4. The last chukker was just a prelude to the Chamuscada team celebration at the trophy presentations as an un-relenting Pitirri team pulled out all stops and scored twice one by Flaco Maldonado and one by the very fortunate Julio Lopez who took a spectacular spill as his horse flipped over him after they both hit the ground on a very hard bump with Denis Santana.
Final score 10-6 Cesar Crespo scored eight of his team’s goals and was named MVP. In the end Chamuscada owes a large debt of gratitude to Tony Rivera who lent Denis Santana his polo string which was the deciding factor in Chamuscada’s success.
