YORKTON - The Water Polo Canada (WPC) Men’s National Team closed out the 2023 World Aquatics Championships held in Fukuoka, Japan, with a 12th-place finish.
“Our goal was top eight,” said Regina’s Brody McKnight goalkeeper on the Canadian team, adding that while the 12th place finish was the team’s best since 2015, it was not what they sought. “. . . There’s still a lot of work to do.”
Still, it was the Canadian team’s best performance on the men’s side at the World Aquatics Championships since the ninth-place result earned in 2015 in Kazan, Russia. At the 2022 World Aquatics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, Canada took the 16th spot after the squad had to withdraw because of COVID-19 cases.
The Canadian Men’s Team opened the tournament in Fukuoka with a 13-10 win against China, but lost their following matches, against Italy (silver medallists in 2022), France, the USA (sixth in 2022 and 2nd at 2022 World League Super Finals), Croatia (reigning European champions and fourth at 2022 World Championships), and Japan (ninth in 2022).
Asked if the issue was simply that Canada does perhaps not take water polo as seriously as other countries, McKnight replied ‘yes and no'.
Certainly there may not be the numbers of players in Canada to pick a team from, but the team has shown it was able to compete on the international stages too, he said.
McKnight said a bigger issue in Japan might have been the relative young age of the Canadian team, which at times had the team “going away from our tactics,” especially against the better teams.
In a release the team’s coach was still relatively satisfied.
“Overall, I think there are a lot of positives that we can grow from,” said the WPC Men’s National Team Head Coach, Pat Oaten. “I think we also learned that there are crucial mistakes that we can't make at this level because we paid dearly for them. A lot of learning went on, some positives, but there are some things we really need to focus on as we prepare for the next two big championships.”
In looking at his own play, McKnight said he couldn’t be too pleased given the team results.
“I wasn’t fully satisfied. We only won one game,” he said, adding as goaltender he needs to find a way to win a few more.
It’s not about stopping everything, but getting the save when really needed, said McKnight.
“There’s always going to be goals in a water polo game . . . You have to just focus on the next shot,” he said, adding it’s not unusual to give up double digit goals. “. . . But, it’s making one or two key saves in key moments that can change the game for your team.”
The 2023 World Aquatics Championships were the first opportunity for all countries to earn a spot among the 12 teams which will compete in the men’s tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.
At the Aquatics Championships, Greece and Hungary qualified for Paris 2024 by reaching the final.
The next qualification opportunity for the Canadian team will be through winning gold at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games set to be held this fall, in a tournament where their top opposition will likely come from Team USA. In Fukuoka, Canada had a closely contested match against the USA, which ended by a score of 13-10.
McKnight said that is certainly the focus now with the team returning to Montreal for a couple of months of fine tuning ahead of the Pan-Am Games.
“Our goal is of course to finish first,” said Saskatchewan’s lone member on the national team.
Obviously the US will be tough, but losing by only three in Fukuoka indicates the Canadian team is close, said McKnight, who added Brazil and Argentina are also contenders to watch.
Earlier this year the men’s national team won gold medals at the 2023 Pan Am Aquatics Championships held in Bauru, Brazil to qualify for the 2023 World Aquatics Championships. Canada finished the tournament in first place with two wins and two losses, the latter two coming against Argentina, including the last one in a shootout. Brazil and Argentina respectively took the second and third spots in the final ranking.
The final opportunity for the Canadian Men’s National Team to qualify for Paris 2024, if necessary, will be to finish among the top four teams at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships in Doha, Qatar, February 2-18, among the nations that will not have already qualified for the Olympic Games. A top 2 finish at the Santiago 2023 Pan American Games should be enough to qualify the team for Doha.
You can no longer count on social media to deliver your local news to you. Keep your news a touch away by bookmarking Yorkton This Week's homepage at this link.
Here's why you should bookmark your favourites.
Bookmark SASKTODAY.ca, Saskatchewan's home page, at this link.
