The Hindu : Sport / Polo : Royal Johor downs Sixt-Army

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Thursday, Nov 15, 2007
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Sport - Polo

Royal Johor downs Sixt-Army

Principal Correspondent

NEW DELHI: Argentine six-goal rider Santiago de Estrada fired six goals as Royal Johor beat Sixt-Army Polo Riding Club 10-8 to open its defence in right earnest, in the Indian Open Polo championship at the Jaipur Polo Ground here on Wednesday.

The 107th edition began here with a farcical three-team meet that proposes to be the National championship.

Defending champion Royal Johor, a team put up by the prince of Johor Tunku Ismail Ibrahim, has two Argentines Estrada and Santiago Cernada, a five-goal player.

Simran Shergill and back Vishal Singh make up the team but still reach 18-goal on handicap in a 20-goal tournament.

Sixt-APRC, is the only all-Indian player team with a total handicap of 16.

Vishal Singh opened the account for Johor by converting a 40-yard penalty and he added one more in the first chukker. Samir Suhaag struck two early in the second chukker, but Estrada called the shots right till the end.

Cernada scored one and Vishal had three besides Estrada’s six as Johor virtually booked itself for the Sunday final. For Sixt-APRC, Manupal Godara slotted in four, Suhaag had three and Uday Kalaan hit one.

Ever since the Indian Polo Association (IPA) increased the goal handicap to 20, the Indian Open has struggled to find teams with such a big handicap. Most of the teams rely on foreign riders, mainly from Argentina, to boost their handicap.

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