2020 GTBank Lagos Polo: Sao Polo win Open Cup

Leighton Sao Polo, on Sunday, edged Shoreline 9-8 to emerge champions of the Open Cup of the GTBank Lagos International Polo Tournament. The finals, which has in attendance the Chief of Army Staff Lt Gen Tukur Buratai among the dignitaries, marked the end of the opening week with the final week galloping off Tuesday Low Cup and prestigious Majekodunmi Cup titles up for grabs. There will also be two subsidiary cups, the Italian Ambassador’s Cup and the Independence Cup to claim.

Both sides are +12 handicap for the Open Cup final and it was Sao Polo team formed by Bowale Jolaosho, Seyi Oyinlola, Martin Juaregui and Manuel Crespo had a day earlier claimed the Oba of Lagos Cup at the expense of STL had a flying start with Argentine seven-year goaler Crespo netting twice before Ashraf Yahaya halved the deficit of a bumber-to-bumper five chukka match.

Fellow Argentine Pipi Greguoli +4 levelled the match with a sensational goal which brought the crowd to their feet but Crespo would not be outshined as he registered another goal. Shoreline was completed by Adebayo Karim and Julio Santiago Estrada and they kept the pressure on their opponents all through but they eventually fell short losing 9-8.

In the preceding match, Khalifa Adams inspired Lagos Golden Alchemy to a 5-0 win over Ibadan Eleyele to win the Silver Cup. Alchemy, which also had Bilal Dantata, Sadiq Dantata and Haliru Suleiman laid their foot on the marker right from the start with Adams driving in a low shot.
Suleiman also got his name on the scorers sheet before Adams got his second for a comfortable 3-0 second chukka lead.

Eleyele which had the quartet of Jide Balogun, Bola Adeyemi, Abdulmalik Bariki and Salisu Umar puts on a great fight but they were puzzled by the all-round aggressiveness of the home team who went on to score three more goals notably of which was Bilal Dantata’s solo goal in the third chukka after robbing the duo of Balogun and Adeyemi from the middle for a resounding victory.