Who will be crowned open U15 national age group champions?
The GoCardless Swim England Water Polo U15 National Age Group Championships return to Coventry’s Alan Higgs Centre this weekend.
Following West London Penguin’s dramatic penalty shootout victory in the female event two weeks ago, this time the open competition heads to the Midlands with 14 teams vying for the title.
They’ve been split into four groups and if Penguin want to make it a double at this age group, then they’ll have to get past the defending champions – City of Manchester.
The two clubs – who contested the final in 2022 – have been drawn together in Group B alongside Newton Abbot and Rotherham Metro.
The North West side will be ones to watch in the competition – after making it to back-to-back finals – and will be hoping to follow up on an impressive defensive display in 2023, which coach Meritxell Escoda-Manzano described as their key to victory.
Speaking after the win in December the Manchester coach said: “It’s such a nice feeling, we’ve been working very hard for the whole season and now we’ve achieved all the goals we had, so it’s a great moment for us all.
“This is the first year that I’ve coached Manchester so it’s a special achievement to win and get the gold back for the club.
“We still need to work mentally and how to be work better under pressure but this is part of growing and we were very good defensively and have been all tournament so I think that was the key to our victory.”
How to follow the action
Only the winners of each group will get the chance to compete for the gold medal – should they also come through the playoff stage on Saturday.
Each team will then return to the pool for the final day on Sunday where the final placings and medals will be decided.
And there’s plenty of strong teams across the competition, including last year’s runners-up in Watford who headline Group A.
They’ll take on Kingston Royals, Cheltenham and a Caledonia side that will be buoyed after their bronze in the female competition two weeks ago.
Group C and D are made up of just three teams with U19 open champions Worthing taking on Croydon and Warrington in Group C.
Group D is made up Exeter, City of Sheffield and a Sandwell side that are set to compete in their first national age group championship finals this weekend.
You can follow our live scoreboard for all the results throughout the course of the competition via this link.
And if you want to watch your side in action on poolside, tickets are still available for just £8 per day and can be purchased here.
This weekend’s event photography will be captured by Will Johnston Photography.
