Britain’s men’s Water Polo squad looked strong and confident on their way to winning the International Tournament in Lodz, Poland.

The three-way competition saw Britain’s 15-strong squad take on Poland and Turkey twice on their way to victory. However, Britain came from behind after losing to Poland in their first round match 3-5 to Poland.

The next two matches saw Britain take on Turkey and beat them in both games. The first saw Britain win with a score of 9-7 and the second 10-6.

The final match was against Poland again and Britain needed to overcome their first loss as they closed in on winning the tournament. The young British squad succeeded and won the match 8-3 and took the tournament title.

Head Coach Jerome Read believes that this result will have built the reputation of the British Water Polo squad in Europe.

“We went into this competition not aiming for good results but good performances,” Read said. “The squad stuck to the game-plan and that was the most important thing for us to see. It was vital that we played how we wanted to play and that brought the results.

“The new faces that debuted on the senior squad played well and they reacted well to the tests and challenges of the competition and that was pleasing to see.”

The women’s Water Polo squad were also in action at the weekend at the Hungarian Invitational Meet. The squad, which are in the middle of a developmental process, showed huge signs of improvement but unfortunately lost all three matches.

This was their first competition since January and the team lost 9-5 to Hungary, 10-5 to Germany and 9-7 to France. The women are closing the gap on their European counterparts and with the current signs of improvement they look set to become contenders for London 2012.

-ENDS-

For further details contact British Swimming Media Officer Gemma Field on 01509 632262, 07917 726431 or email gemma.field@swimming.org

British Swimming is the National Governing Body for Swimming, Diving, Synchronised Swimming, Water Polo and Open Water in Great Britain.  It is responsible internationally for the high performance representation of the sport. The members of British Swimming are the three Home Countries national governing bodies of England (Amateur Swimming Association), Scotland (Scottish Amateur Swimming Association) and Wales (Welsh Amateur Swimming Association). British Swimming seeks to enable its athletes to achieve gold medal success at the Olympics, Paralympics, World Championships and Commonwealth Games.

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