WOMEN'S U21

In 2002 the first women’s U21 canoe polo world championships were held in Essen, Germany, with the host nation triumphing over Poland in the final.

The next world titles were not held until 2010, with Germany losing the final to France. Since then another four world championships have been held, and Germany has won every one of them.

On Tuesday the German women’s U21 team began their quest to make it an incredible five in a row, and six in total. The put in a swashbuckling performance, galloping past Spain 6-0, and then putting the foot to the floor to trample Great Britain 11-2.

Captain Hannah Kunz, the only remaining member of the 2018 world title team, said scoring 17 goals on the opening day sends a strong message to the other teams.

“Everything worked out for us, everything that we planned we could do,” captain Hannah Kunz said.

“Especially our fast breaks were good, I’m really happy with my team. We were really excited, so sometimes it’s hard to concentrate and do good passes. Sometimes you just need a few minutes and then it will get better.”

The only other unbeaten team after day one of competition is 2018 bronze medalists, New Zealand. The paddle ferns opened the day with a ruthless 7-0 victory over Italy, and then triumphed over host nation France 2-1 in a tight struggle in front of an enthusiastic St-Omer crowd.

“There were definitely some nerves out there, but the girls did really well just to put them aside and play how we want to play,” captain Kate Blincoe said.

“We didn’t come in with much expectation, there’s a lot more work to be done but I’m sure we can do it.”

The host nation finished with a win and a draw, beating Poland 3-2 before losing the arm wrestle against New Zealand. Captain Laura Saliou said first-day nerves added an extra challenge to her team.

“It was a little bit difficult because they are the first games of the competition, and we have the public at home, so a lot of stress because we want to be good in our country,” Saliou said.

“We have some new players in our team, so we did not know about their stress and how they would react to the public and the noise, but it was fine and I am proud of the team.”

The Polish women’s U21 team did well to even make it to St Omer, after three of their players were involved in a car accident on the way to France.

The players, including captain Oliwia Watkowska, had to spend time in a Germany hospital for observation, but insisted on continuing to St-Omer for the world championships. The team lost to France in their opening match and to Spain in game two, but Watkowska said the results were not important.

“We didn’t have any chance to play on these pitches before the world championships because of our car accident,” she said.

“There was a lot of emotion for us today. After we left the hospital we asked our coach if there was any chance to come here. He said if we wanted to, we could go. And we are here.

“We are just happy that we are here, and that we can play with other teams.”

In other results, the Netherlands bounced back after a surprise 1-2 loss to Great Britain to beat Italy 4-3.

“It was a very tight game, but in the end we played woman-to-woman defence and that worked well for us,” Huizinga said.

“We had quite a few counter-attacks. Our first game we lost by just one goal, and we felt like we could have won that so it was a bit of a bummer. We played well, we just didn’t finish.

“There are quite a few teams here who we haven’t seen yet, so we don’t really know where we are. We’ll just do our best and see where we are headed.”

Great Britain and Spain also finished day one with a win and a loss, while Italy is still to register its first win of the championships.

Competition in the women’s U21 continues on Wednesday.