New Zealand, Germany, France and Poland made their moves in their respective divisions on the second day of the ICF canoe polo world championships in St-Omer, France.
Heavy storm clouds did little to dampen the enthusiasm of another capacity crowd at the purpose-built St-Omer venue, and it was the French women’s team who gave the locals the most to get excited about heading into this weekend’s finals.
The French bring winning form to the world championships, having won their first ever gold medal at last month’s The World Games. They began their campaign this week with an 11-1 win over Japan and an 11-2 result against USA.
“It’s good energy for us, it gives us a chance to be here, we feel very lucky to have family and friends here, and we just want to make big things for all of us,” captain Claire Moal said.
“We are confident because we know what we can do, but for now we just have to play game for game. Obviously we are here for the win.”
In the men’s senior competition it was Germany who made the big impression on their opening day of play, beating Japan 6-2 and Portugal 8-1. Spain, bronze medalists at The World Games, Italy, who finished fourth, and Netherlands also won both their opening matches.
New Zealand look the team to beat after two days of competition in the women’s U21 division. On Wednesday they beat pre-tournament favourites Germany 4-3 and then took care of Poland 9-1 to keep their unbeaten record intact.
Captain Kate Blincoe is excited about her team’s form.
“It was an awesome result, great to have that one under our belt,” she said after her team’s win over Germany.
“We like a little bit of pressure, but definitely the games not over yet, we’ve got a lot more games to go so we need to keep turning up and doing what we’re doing.”
Great Britain is still in the box seat to win a third consecutive men’s U21 title after two days of play. The British team won all four of its matches to clearly lead its group. Italy and Germany were also undefeated.
Poland showed they should be considered as a medal contender with a 5-2 win over home team France in front of a boisterous St-Omer crowd.
“To win 5-2, last time we had a draw, so we are getting better and better,” captain Juliusz Bulira said.
“The crowd motivated us, I have never seen anything like this. Now we’ll move to the next group and see how we go tomorrow. We are here to win a medal.”
The 14th ICF Canoe Polo World Championships continue in St-Omer on Thursday.
