Great Britain gear up for Water Polo European Qualifiers

22 Jun 2023

Great Britain's women's and men's water polo teams are out in Portugal and Turkey respectively this week for the 2024 European Championships qualification stage.

It is the first time since 2014 that either team has embarked on the campaign, with both teams looking to make inroads on the international stage following a series of credible results over the previous few months.

Great Britain's women are fresh off the back of their win at the 2023 Danube Cup - thanks to a 9-4 victory over Germany, who are their first opponents in the group when the action kicks off on Friday. Nick Buller’s team will be in action at Rio Maior to compete in a tightly fought group that also contains Finland and hosts Portugal.

To make the finals, the British teams need to finish in the top two of their groups to give themselves a chance of getting to Tel Aviv.

For the women, a top-two finish will be enough to qualify but only the best three of four second placed teams on the men’s side will make the finals in Israel - due to the tournament hosts taking the extra spot.

They will join the eight sides in each competition that have already qualified after making the quarter-finals at last year’s European Championships.

The men's team have been drawn in a tough group which features three sides that regularly qualify for the European finals. The squad contains 11 of the English side that recently took victory at the Home Nations Tournament in Dublin.

They open up their campaign on Friday against Olympic Champions Serbia, who won the gold at both the Tokyo 2020 and Rio 2016 Games, before then facing hosts Turkey and Slovakia as head coach Nick Hume hopes to guide his team to success in Istanbul.

All details for both competitions are on the LEN website.

Great Britain’s women’s competition schedule

Friday 23 June

Great Britain v Germany 19:00

Saturday 24 June

Great Britain v Portugal 19:00

Sunday 25 June

Great Britain v Finland 09:00

Great Britain's men's competition schedule

Friday 23 June

Great Britain vs Serbia, 17:00

Saturday 24 June

Great Britain v Turkey, 17:00

Sunday 25 June

Great Britain v Slovakia, 9:30 

Great Britain’s Women’s squad 

Annie Clapperton

Katy Cutler

Toula Falvey

Vicki Hawkins

Izzy Howe

Rosie Huck

Sophie Jackson

Niamh Maloney

Mhairi Nurthen

Amelia Peters

Alex Robinson

Kathy Rogers

Brooke Tafazolli

Lily Turner

Head Coach – Nick Buller

Assistant Coach – Peggy Etiebet

Great Britain’s Men’s squad for the European Qualification tournament 

Daniel Atkinson

George Davies

Fraser Duguid

Jordan Elliot

Tom Hunt

Tom Manley

Elliot McHugh

Daniel Paddon

Lloyd Pittick

Kameron Powell

John Pratt

James Salt

Ryan Symington

Head Coach – Nick Hume

Assistant Coach – Matthew Holland