Bangash Bhansali Polo team emerge winners at Dubai Challenge Cup 2023

Gulf Today, Staff Reporter

Dubai Challenge Cup, the third tournament of the Dubai Polo Gold Cup Series, concluded with two exciting matches on the grounds of Al Habtoor Polo Club.

The final featured a match between Bangash Bhansali Polo and Habtoor Ankora Polo. Jose Riglos for Habtoor Ankora Polo opened the scoring with two back to back goals, not long after Tomas Iriarte from the opposing team responded with two penalty shots, ending the first chukker with only 0.5 advantage.

 The Habtoor Ankora Polo dominated the first half of the game and maintained their lead with 0.5 goal advantage by the end of the penultimate chukker. However, it was the team in grey – Rishi Bhansali, Tomas Iriarte and two goals from Federico Von Potobsky who sealed the win for Bangash Bhansali at 11.5 goals to 8.

Earlier, in the subsidiary final, Orbis Mahra Polo began the match with a 1.5 goal advantage, and in the second chukker, Tomas Palacios brought their score up to 2.5. However, it was Khalid Bin Drai who finished off the second chukker with a hat trick of goals, resulting in a score of 4 - 2.5 in favor of Bin Drai Polo.

The blue shirted players of Bin Drai team kept their lead in the penultimate chukker with 7 goals to 2.5, and by the end of the final chukker, Ali Al Merri and Segundo Amadori from Bin Drai Polo had taken Orbis – Mahra ahead of its competition, ultimately securing a victory for Bin Drai Polo with a score of 9 - 6.5.

Karim Adnan Maksoud, Managing Director of Al Habtoor Motors, awarded the teams of the Dubai Challenge Cup 2023. The Most Valuable Player was awarded to Tomas Iriarte, and the Best Playing Pony was awarded to Camerera, ridden by Jose Riglos and owned by Mohammed Al Habtoor.