JUNIORS MAKE EUROPEAN WATER POLO HISTORY
Britain's young water polo talent has made history by winning
a European qualification tournament for the first time while
ensuring the squad will be in the hat for this summer's Junior
Championships in Romania.
The British team of 14 failed to drop a point as they won
all five of their qualifying matches to top Group A on 10
points ahead of Poland on eight who also qualify.
The British side won their opening encounter at University
Arena, Limerick against Israel 8-6, however, their impressive
form seemed to have deserted them in the second game to Belarus.
Britain found themselves 4-1 down at half-time but showed
real determination and discipline to overhaul their opponents
for an eventual 8-5 victory.
A free-scoring encounter against Portugal saw Britain emerge
14-10 victors before a top of the table clash with Poland
that Britain won 8-4 to highlight their improvement in recent
months.
In the final game of the tournament Britain retained their
discipline and professionalism against Ireland to dominate
the affair 18-2 to secure a group win and progression through
to the championships in July.
"It's the first time we've won a group qualification
tournament and is a culmination of a two-year programme to
get to this point," said British National Performance
Director Nick Hume.
"The aim of the programme was to develop youngsters
like these to get them into the European Championships so
we must applaud that fact.
"We need to be competing a events of this calibre to
increase the experience of our players and to continue their
development. This is now paying-off and the future looks promising
for the sport in Britain with the 2012 Olympics on the horizon."
University Arena, Limerick played hosts to the Group A contest
while Innsbruck , Austria staged the Group B tournament and
Sofia in Bulgaria the Group C competition.
The European Junior Championships will be held in Romania
in July and will feature the host nation, the nine top placed
teams from the same event last year and six teams, including
Britain, determined via the three qualifying groups.
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