Water polo festival in Korcula
"World Water Polo Days" in Korčula, as the official name of the event taking place this weekend in Korčula reads, is really not a pretentious title. Saturday and Sunday on the fairytale island of Korčula and in the town of the same name, otherwise the smallest town in Europe that has a winner of a European water polo competition (KPK is the winner of the European Cup Winners' Cup in 1978), offered plenty of interesting things already on the first day, some of the most respected names from the history of European water polo and world water polo, and at the end of Saturday, a show match between the grandmasters of this sport, the Olympic winners from London, Croatia from 2012 and the World team.
Panel worthy of the Hall of Fame
The program started at 11:00 a.m. in the Korčula Cultural Center with an open table on the topic "Changes in water polo from the 1980s to today". Participants, stars of this sport – members of the Water Sports Hall of Fame, coaches and former selectors Ratko Rudić (Croatia) and Denes Kemeny (Hungary); as well as another trophy coach of the national team, Dejan Savić (Serbia), and the current Spanish national team member, Felipe Perrone.
The quartet of aces offered their vision of water polo in front of a packed auditorium of the Cultural Center, the way in which this sport should change in the future, current trends, a reminder of all previous changes in water polo, they also warned of certain problems and difficulties, offered solutions, etc.
Rudić's farewell from the bench
In the evening, starting at 8:00 p.m., the exhibition match Croatia 2012 - Svijet was played in the open pool of the KPK. A meeting that filled the stands of the Korčula swimming pool to the brim, and it is really not an exaggeration to state that more places were sought.
For Croatia in 2012, the team that brought the first Olympic gold to Lijepa Nuša 12 years ago - Josip Pavić , Damir Burić, Miho Bošković, Nikša Dobud, Maro Joković, Ivan Buljubasic, Petar Muslim, Andro Bušlje, Sandro Sukno, Samir Barač, Igor Hinić, Paulo Obradović, Frano Vićan. Of course, they were led from the bench by Ratko Rudić, for whom this was practically, in a symbolic way, a farewell game in his coaching career. Some are club presidents (Barač), state secretaries (Pavić), coaches (Hinić, Vićan, Sukno), sports directors (Muslim), entrepreneurs (Burić, Dobud), but there are also quite a few active players - Joković, Buljubašić, Bušlje , Obradović...
On the other hand, the list of players who played for the World team is also impressive - Daniel Lopez (Spain), Tamas Kasas (Hungary), Andrija Prlainović (Serbia), Boris Zloković (Montenegro), Aleksandar Ivović (Montenegro), Felipe Perrone (Spain), Duško Pijetlović (Serbia), Valentino Gallo (Italy), Matteo Aicardi (Italy), Christos Afroudakis (Greece), Georgios Afroudakis (Greece), Zoltan Szecsi (Hungary). The World team was filled by Mihovil Marinović from VK Galeb MR.
The World was led from the bench by another member of the Hall of Fame, the Serbian coach, once a great player, Igor Milanović.
The result? In principle, irrelevant. There are no losers, water polo is the winner, although in order not to leave the information incomplete, it ended:
Croatia 2012 - World 13:13 (3:4, 5:3, 2:3, 3 :3).
For Croatia 2012. goals were scored by - Sukno 3, Bušlje 2, Dobud 2, Joković 2, and Bošković, Buljubasic, Muslim and Obradović 1 each. Perrone 2, Gallo 2, G. Afroudakis 2, and Ivović and Aicardi 1.
The judges were Nenad Periš from Split and Vlaho Radičević from Dubrovnik, while the proxies were Milivoj Bebić from Split, another member of the Water Sports Hall of Fame and Božo Vuletić from Dubrovnik.
The "World Water Polo Days" continue on Sunday, August 18. At noon (12:00 p.m.) on the islet of Vrnik near Korčula, there will be another exhibition match called "Waterpolo All Stars" with famous people from the world of water polo, but also from social life.
In the evening, from 8:00 p.m. is a screening of the documentary film "It Happened" by director Dejan Aćimović, about the most trophy-winning water polo coach in the world, our Ratko Rudić.
