Gauteng Invitational Water Polo Tournament

Gauteng Water Polo winter league finals at Wahoo and Electric Eels this Saturday.

Incredible how the largest and most successful water polo club in the history of the sport, the "Real Madrid" of the water polo world, has folded overnight.

RECCO PRO NO MORE!

With only a handful of days to go before the world of waterpolo goes to war in Paris, the focus has clearly centred around the team from Italy!

Waterpolo enthusiasts were shaken by the Pro Recco tsunami and their overnight demise, with the withdrawal of funding from their billionaire backer Gabriele Volpi, ending a 19-year period of support.

Pro Recco over the years has contracted the ‘best of the best’ from all over the globe and seemingly never had worries in the financial department.

There is currently seven players in the Italian Olympic team that have a Pro Recco contract, not worth the paper it’s written on and have been given the freedom to seek new employment with other clubs that may require their services.

Olympic Head Coach of Italy, Sandro Campagna has given these seven players a window period of 48 hours to do all their negotiations with prospective clubs and after that no telephonic conversations allowed, as the focus must purely be, Olympics!

According to press reports, Pro Recco will turn to rebuilding with their junior programs,( only 80 players players) as they simply don’t have the budget to mix it in the big leagues anymore.

There certainly will be clubs jumping at the opportunity to employ classy players, who overnight became free agents, but some of the cashed up clubs had ready filled their rosters, prior to the news of Recco’s demise!

All par for the course as a professional waterpolo player, as you’re never 100% secure at whatever club you play for, but the instant fall from grace, as being comfortably employed by the most exclusive club in the world and the next day you’re free to leave because there’s no money, is a bitter pill to swallow!

Some of these players have families and the bills will continue to be delivered into the postbox, so the urgency of securing a contract to fill the void is priority number one at this stage.

What will Recco’s Head Coach Sandro Sukno do ?

What will players like Aaron Younger, Ivovic and Aicardi do ?

How will this effect the Italian Men’s team in Paris?

Only time will tell!

We, as a waterpolo community worldwide wish for their continued success as a player, in support of their welfare and those around them.

Congratulations to South African players, Georgia Eccles and Michaela Boaventura who have won 🏆 the Portuguese Cup representing SL Benfica. Benfica beat Clube Fluvial Portuense 13-10 in the final.

POLO AQUÁTICO
Taça de Portugal Guarda 2024.
O Benfica conquistou hoje a Taça de Portugal 2024 ao vencer a na final o Fluvial Portuense, por 13-10.
As pupilas de António Machado garantiram o seu sexto troféu na Taça de Portugal, com os parciais de 3-3; 4-1; 2-4; 4-2.
RESULTADOS: https://po07_23-24.arenadisplay.live/match/po07_23-24_Game_7/timeline

https://www.youtube.com/live/Wk9fC6owk2E?si=UZOUmx7MBAKCWqu6

Long, but great overview of last year & plan for 2024 for European water polo.

European Aquatics Meeting with Water Polo Clubs and Federations European Aquatics Meeting with Water Polo Clubs and FederationsDate: 6 June 2024 Time: 10:00 am (CET)Location: MaltaSubscribe to the official European Aquati...

Best of luck to South African players, Georgia Eccles and Michaela Boaventura who are both playing for SL Benfica in today's Portugal 🇵🇹 Cup final.

Interesting analysis by Academy Waterpolo on the power that the referees have in determining the outcome of a match.

Unfortunately it happens more often than not, even at the most elite level.

WATER POLO GONE CRAZY IN MALTA.

What was tipped to be the game of the year between two deserving finalists, Pro Recco vs Ferencvaros, was marred by a VAR decision against a Pro Recco player Gergo Zalanki.

Not saying the decision was wrong, as that’s for the officials to decide but what happens after the decision shows that referees have the power in their whistle!

The red card was shown to the Pro Recco player at 4min:25sec into the quarter (results in penalty for FTC)

Mandic steps up, converts the penalty and extends the lead 10-8 for his team FTC.

The next half of the quarter was an exclusion fest against FTC !…..why?

DOUBLE EXCLUSION
4:11 Mandic excluded and 4:07 Merkulov excluded- both from FTC

TRIPLE EXCLUSION
3:38 Vigari excluded and 3:34 Jansic and 3:28 Fekete excluded- all from FTC

DOUBLE EXCLUSION
2:22 Varga excluded and 2:20 Argyropoulos excluded - both from FTC.

SINGLE EXCLUSION
0:16 Nagy excluded - from FTC

Pro Recco failed to capitalise on these opportunities and fell agonisingly short, going down by a solitary goal 12-11.

One has to ask why one referee suddenly changes his style to exclude so many players of the team (FTC) that has an extra player, due to the red card shown to Recco.

Scenario painted above clearly shows a sway against one team and a completely different way to refereeing compared to the previous three quarters.

We invite your comments about this and if you feel that officials in our game have an ability to change/manipulate outcomes ?

*not taking anything away from the result but just asking for a friend, your thoughts and opinions 😁

A true high performance, elite training programme which is based at TUKS.

It succeeds because of the coach, Rocco Meiring, as well as the commitment of the swimmers and parents.

Cry The Beloved Sport: The Plight of Senior Water Polo in South Africa 🇿🇦

South African 🇿🇦 players, Michaela Boaventura and Georgia Eccles win 🏆 gold medal 🏅 in Portugal 🇵🇹 as SL Benfica retain their Portuguese National Water Polo title.

SL Benfica will play in the Cup Final next weekend.

Congratulations ladies, we are very proud of you.

📸 Paulo Lousa

Congratulations to our two South African and Gauteng Water Polo players, Georgia Eccles (St Stithians) and Michaela Boaventura (Roedean) who have just won the finals of the Portuguese ladies league, representing iconic Portuguese Club, SL Benfica.

SL Benfica beat rivals, Clube Fluvial Portuense, 14-8 in the final match of a best of 3 match series. Wonderful experience for our two Gauteng players.

Credit: SL Benfica & Clube Fluvial Portuense

*SAFEGUARDING FOR COACHES*

1 June 2024
Woodhill clubhouse
Registration 10h00
Prompt start 10h30
R100/person

Purchase your ticket here:

https://paystack.com/buy/safeguarding-for-coaches---1-june-2024-wtbyqm

https://ssschoolsplus.co.za/big-names-selected-as-sa-gears-up-for-world-aquatics-championships/?fbclid=IwZXh0bgNhZW0CMTEAAR25W_fz7EGFTAjNzuddjI5A-uGa60xWDiPWiAWfViOzb7HX7-lwyQDMKK4_aem_AXxuBBnxQfgylkY4y5cE_W0JXfk96_mdIvbLCp6iuf3blLq0mnSUYg61gG8TLOGO9XaC_H8RmGIkzmz-RDwH9hcF

Big selection calls as SA gears up for World Aquatics Championships Only four Central Gauteng boys’ team players, who claimed gold at this year’s Junior Water Polo Championships, have been included...

🤽🏼‍♂️Dive into the action with Water Polo Wintet Leagues! Stay in the loop from May to August by downloading our apps (links in bio). For Tuesday Winter League games, check out the Gauteng Water Polo App, while Wahoo Winter League games (Thursday, Friday and Sunday) are on the IH Sports App.

Are scholarships having an adverse effect on school sport?

Integrity-driven success in schoolboy rugby This post explores the shortcomings of relying solely on bursaries to develop young rugby talent and proposes a more holistic approach to nurturing sustainable success in schoolboy rugby.

Congratulations to Georgia Eccles for her impressive debut and goal for SL Benfica! 🎉👏 It's incredible to see her journey from St Stithians and Gauteng Schools Water Polo to now playing for the Portugal National ladies water polo champions. Keep shining, Georgia!

🌟 🇿🇦🇵🇹

📸 Paulo Lousa
Federação Portuguesa de Natação

Where there’s smoke 💨 there’s fire. 🔥

Over the last 48 hours of a very successful World Championships in Doha, it has come to the attention of the waterpolo community worldwide that for some reason, the continent of Africa will not be representing at the Paris Olympic Games 2024.

Africa Waterpolo as a sport has every right to have a spot at the Olympics.

The 2023 World Aquatics Championships, scheduled for 16 to 29 July in Fukuoka, Japan, will produce the winners and runners-up of the men's and women's water polo tournament qualifying for Paris 2024.

Five further quota places will be awarded to the highest-ranked eligible NOC at each of the continental meets (Africa, Americas, Asia, Europe, and Oceania) approved by World Aquatics.

The last batch of quota places were assigned highest-ranked eligible NOCs at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar to complete the ten-team field for the Games.
4 in the mens comp and 2 in the women comp.

If any of the continental criteria does not occur within the qualifying period, the vacant spot will be entitled to the highest-ranked eligible NOC from a respective continent at the succeeding edition of the Worlds.

South Africa were the candidates from Africa that met the criteria (or did they) and athletes had one hand in the available invitation from Africa but the players had been told that this invitation will be withdrawn if they don’t finish top 12 at Worlds in Doha.

So, in saying the South Africans had therefore two qualification criteria put on their shoulders before they could claim an invitation.

Africa has only ever had two nations compete at the Olympics games, Egypt and South Africa.

Egypt 🇪🇬’48, ‘52, 60, 64, 68, ‘04.
South Africa 🇿🇦 52, 60, ‘20.

Unfortunately for the men’s and women’s teams of South Africa 🇿🇦 they will not be competing at the Paris games because their spots have been gifted to Canada 🇨🇦 and Romania 🇷🇴.

So there will be no waterpolo representation from Africa in this years games in Paris which shows the Olympic Committee that the

A- game isn’t growing worldwide
B- game isnt representative of each continent (Africa, South America)
C - someone was happy to gift the invitation over!

Who made this decision that shatters the hopes and dreams of players who want to represent in the spirit of the Olympic Games.

We invite the ‘world’ to respond ( constructively) with comments to the above, because for waterpolo to grow, we have to find the answers.
Or
Africa will continue to be a trading card in the grand scheme of Olympic representation, moving forward!

Good news for the Canadians after today’s loss.
But also a sad moment for waterpolo…

https://www.instagram.com/reel/C3Hx6YYqVLn/?igsh=MTN6a2oydG1hMGx5MA==

Attention Elevate Family! 🤽🏼‍♂️ Registration is officially open for the U19 Next Generation Cup Tournament in Spain 🇪🇸 📍 Sabadell, Barcelona 📆 September 14-24, 2024 🌎 A full European training camp before competition Age-Group: 2005, 2006, 2007, 2008 born players (girls and boys) Register your interest via the link in bio or https://nextgencup.elevatewaterpolo.co.za/

Great Britain secured the crossover match against Hungary or Australia 👏👏👏

Expected 3️⃣ points for Australia 🇦🇺

Just like in the earlier game, now all the Italian players scored 🇮🇹🤽‍♀️

Spain starts their campaign with the expected win 🇪🇸

Win for Canada 🇨🇦