Despite being a very popular South African school sport particularly amongst rugby players, water polo still lives in the shadows of more traditional national sports. After school there just are not anywhere near enough resources being ploughed into water polo for players to stay interested or for South Africa to hope to compete on an equal footing with other very professional top nations in the sport. Whereas our schools churn out rugby and cricket stars that are amongst the best in the world in their age-groups and go on to achieve huge success at the highest level, the same cannot be said about water polo. Perhaps this is all about to change. FINA has organized the first ever under-18 water polo championship. It will take place in Perth, Australia from 01-09 December 2012. South Africa will be 1 of 19 countries taking part. The youth championship will give an idea of more or less how strong our school water polo is, the improvements required and may just prove to be the catalyst for more investment and public focus on the sport after school.
Group A:
USA, Hungary, Egypt, Canada
Group B:
South Africa, New Zealand, Australia, Columbia
Group C:
Uzbekistan, Trinidad & Tobago, Romania, Greece, Iran
Group D:
Brazil, Italy, Serbia, Peru, Kazakhstan
@Beet, yep weird that! My best mate is hungarian and he loves to tell me how good they are. Their Under15 side could beat our Under18’s…
@Grasshopper: Spain not even in attendance :shock:
@Star, yep but Hungary are traditionally the best followed weirdly by Spain.
@star: You saw my scores at Mafikeng? Yep I played terrible but the conditions were awful. Just remember us tournament golfers play strokeplay where every shot counts, not like you Kloof okes that pick up after 6 freshies.
@ T ….. Polo.When am I going to relieve you of some new Wes Rand notes on a decent golf course.
@Grassy- All the Eastern European countries are strong. I would have put my money on Croatia although they don’t seem to be listed which is very strange. Loser would have brought drinks.
@STAR…….Marco!!!!!
Hungary should take it, but best of luck to the boys these sides are something else…