Team Cecchetto is the winner of the AAM Swiss Open – Polo championships 2007. The thrilling final between Team Cecchetto and Team Helvetica was played on Sunday August 12th in front of 5’000 spectators.
Team Cecchetto with patrons Philipp Maeder and Werner Meier saved a half-a-goal advantage till the end and finally beat Team Helvetica with 6½ to 6 goals. The petite final was polo at its best as well. Team Gräff Capital won against Team BMW in the fifth Chukka thanks to a penalty-shot by extraordinarily playing Santiago Chavanne. The Argentine 8-goaler was struggling with a rib injury at the beginning of the tournament recovered well for the finals. Fifth place went to Team Küng, beating Team Beyer 7 to 5 in the last game. Juan Zavalia Paunero of Team Helvetica was rightfully judged Most Valuable Player.
Six teams with patrons from six nations competed for almost a week: teams Beyer (Patrons Daniel Aegerter and Stefan Roth), BMW (Andrew P. Foreman and Majid el Solh), Cecchetto (Philipp Maeder and Werner Meier), Gräff Capital (Markus Gräff and Irene Gräff), Helvetica (Juan Zavalía Paunero and Derek Harvey) and Küng (Michael Fass and Christohper Bill Bruckner). The Polo Park Zurich is the only polo club in Switzerland, whose infrastructure allows tournaments with six teams participating.
The tournament started in heavy rainfall which meant a lot of reorganisation due to postponements of games. But all these efforts were rewarded by a wonderful finals-weekend with lots of sun and perfect ground conditions. On Friday evening a 28-goal game was played, a level unique for Switzerland. In course of the DAVIDOFF POLO NIGHT, the eight best pros, including Maritn Garrahan, Pablo Jauretche, Gaston Gassiebayle and Alejandro Novillo Astrada showed high-level polo to VIP guests and an enthusiastic audience at the public viewing.
The AAM Swiss Open can definitely be considered a great success not only as an event but also for polo sport in Switzerland. More than 8’000 people came to the Polo Park Zurich to get an idea of the sport. The media coverage including all important newspapers, National TV and several radio stations as well as the international polo-press reported about the tournament – a great show case for polo sport.
For further information (pictures, accreditation, interviews) please contact:
Press office AAM Swiss Open, Büro 10, Sara Roloff, Zürcherstrasse 119, 8406 Winterthur
Phone +41 52 269 20 06, Fax +41 52 269 20 09, Email sara.roloff@buero10.ch,
www.polopark.ch