Great Britain’s future stars continue European Championship preparation

Three of Great Britain’s water polo squads have spent their half term break overseas as they continue their European Championships preparation.

Each of the men’s U19, women’s U19 and women’s U18 teams have been undergoing high intensity training camps which will be used as vital preparation ahead of their upcoming events.

Both the men’s U19 and women’s U18 sides headed to Barcelona where they were hosted by the Barcelona International Water Polo Academy (BIWPA).

For the men’s U19s it was a welcome return to Catalunya, where they took part in the Next Generations Cup back in September, for the team’s final training camp before their crucial U19 European Championship qualifiers in Trebinje, Bosnia next month.

Tim Dunsbee’s side will take on a five team group including France, Czech Republic, Finland as well as the hosts Bosnia and Herzegovina where the top two will progress to the finals in September.

They spent five days in Spain fine tuning their preparations for the competition which included scrimmages against Club Natacio Barcelona (CNB), Club Esportiu Mediterrani, Club Natació Atletic-Barceloneta (CNAB), UE Horta and the BIWPA Academy team.

Essential development

Great Britain’s Women’s U18 side joined the men’s U19s in Barcelona for a five day training camp of their own from Tuesday 13 – Saturday 17 February.

The 16-strong-squad were working towards the U18 European Championships in 2025 with the exposure of taking on European opponents an essential step in the sides ongoing development.

Coaches Nick Hume and Sue Webb aimed to implement the tactical sides of their game that they’ve worked on in training back in the UK. They also faced CNB, CNAB and UE Horta as the team continued to prepare for the physical demands of a 10-day European competition.

Finally, GB’s U19 Women spent four days in Zeist which hosted the senior women’s side prior to their European Championship campaign in January.

They took on a mixture of the Netherlands’ U16-U19 age group sides to give them as much experience against top quality opponents as possible.

The U19 women will be competing in the European Championships later this year in Zagreb, Croatia and used the time in Zeist to work hard both in the pool and the classroom to develop the squad for the event which gets underway on Saturday 31 August.

You can find squad list for each of the teams training camps below.