European Aquatics’ successful water polo development camp set to raise standards across continent

European Aquatics’ week-long Water Polo Development Camp in Kranevo, Bulgaria, has been hailed as a huge success and plans are already in place to make the event a permanent fixture in the calendar for years to come.

Up-and-coming young players – junior boys and girls aged U12 and U14 – travelled from all corners of the continent to historic Kranevo from June 24-30, where they trained at the town’s state-of-the-art facilities under the expert guidance of a team of world-class coaches and referees.

‘The Development Camp was an excellent experience for everyone involved – the players, the coaches and the referees,’ stated European Aquatics’ Water Polo Director, Renato Zivkovic. ‘We’re really satisfied with how everything went.  

‘All the participants will be returning home with better knowledge and the ability to develop the sport further in their countries with their clubs and federations.’

The Development Camp has been established to raise the standards of coaching and refereeing across Europe and is designed to fully support the next generation of players coming through, specifically from countries wanting to take their water polo programmes to the next level.

‘Everyone enjoyed all the fun and interactive water polo sessions in and out of the pool,’ said Renato. ‘There was lots of individual and team work in the water twice a day, with all the youngsters improving their technique and skills.

‘Each participant also played lots of games and the camp concluded with a special tournament on Sunday where they were all winners and all received a commemorative medal.’

The talented coaches and lecturers present in Kranevo all have a great wealth of water polo experience and were able to pass on their specialist knowledge to everyone who attended in an enjoyable way.

One of the referees sharing their expertise was Italy’s Raffaele Colombo, who whistled at the recent Champions League Final Four gold medal game in Malta.

The Development Camp was a fantastic opportunity for young referees to learn from someone like Raffaele and take on-board his advice, which they can take home and use to increase the levels of all officials in their own domestic leagues.

With its incredible on-site facilities – including two Olympic-sized pools – Kranevo, which is just north of Varna on the Black Sea coast, was the ideal location for the well-received event.

‘European Aquatics has a great relationship with the Bulgarian Water Polo Federation and they helped us a lot to put this successful event on,’ added Renato. ‘We plan to make the camp an annual tradition, as our goal is always to find ways to help developing water polo federations. Next year, we are looking forward to welcoming even more participants.’

Three of the key coaches in Kranevo were Neven Kovačević, Petar Radanovic and Victor Gonzalez.

Neven has been instrumental in developing young players in Croatia’s well-established youth set-up for decades and was also the coach of the men’s national team from 1998-2001.

New Novi Beograd coach Petar also has a strong background in youth development thanks to his long association with Montenegro’s junior squads and famously helped guide them to the U17 European Championships gold in Malta in 2017.

Victor is extremely well-respected for his youth development work as well, and has enjoyed great success with the Spanish age-group teams and at CN Mataro.

‘It’s been a very successful camp, amazing,’ said the President of the Bulgarian Water Polo Federation, Dariy Danovski. ‘It’s been fantastic to see all the youngsters learning together at such a high-level and most importantly having fun and enjoying the whole experience with a smile on their faces.

‘All the expert referees and coaches have been able to educate all the participants in a very professional manner and provide a totally different level of learning.

‘I hope to see the Development Camp return year after year, as it’s clear how beneficial this week has been to everyone who took part.

‘The aim is always to help all the players and officials to create a more appealing sport for everyone – the participants, the spectators and for TV and for streaming platforms.

‘We always need to look at ways to improve and this week has been an excellent opportunity to learn how to do that from the very best.’

Any queries about the European Aquatics Development Camp can be emailed to waterpolo@europeanaquatics.org

Andy Rollé for European Aquatics

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