British Swimming to support men’s water polo campaign
18th December 2012
Despite today’s announcement that there will be a loss of UK Sport funding for the Men’s British Water Polo programme, British Swimming has vowed to support the squad for the 2014 LEN European Championships qualifying matches which will be run in April 2013.
“Clearly there will be disappointment that men’s water polo missed out but we will now work hard with the vibrant British Water Polo community to see what we can do to build an effective and appropriate programme for them,” said David Sparkes, CEO of British Swimming.
“We will support the men’s team for the European qualifiers to allow them to continue their international programme at the beginning of next year.”
The first qualification tournament will be held in Georgia in April.
The Brits have been drawn against Georgia, who they beat in July last year, as well as Slovakia, Poland and Czech Republic.
The women’s team, boosted by today’s funding announcement will play their first games over the same weekend in Israel.
They finished seventh in the 2012 European Championships and will be looking to overturn Ukraine, Israel, Portugal and the Netherlands in qualification to secure their place for the 2014 finals.
