Great Britain’s U18 Women claim 11th in Europe

[Images courtesy of European Aquatics]

In the Group D division, Great Britain’s U18 Women Water Polo team enjoyed five wins on the bounce to secure their progression to the crossover match round - with victories over Romania (17-7), Bulgaria (36-4), Slovakia (17-6), Czechia (20-9) and Switzerland (23-4) placing them top of their lower division group in comprehensive fashion as Amelie Perkins netted 41 strikes during this stage of the championships.

The level of competition was raised as they faced Isreal – who had finished fourth in the higher seeded Group B – for a quarter final place in the crossover round. The British line-up put up a strong performance against this tough opposition and closed the gap in the score to 13-9 in the final quarter.

Entering the 9th-12th Classification games, Britain were narrowly edged by Germany in a thrilling 11-10 clash.

The Germans took the lead five times in the first half, with the British women equalising on four occasions. A huge battle kicked off the third quarter with no goals for four minutes, then Germany netted an extra for 6-4. The British response was fierce, a three-goal haul in a span of 47 seconds, all from action, to take the lead for the first time in the match, before a shot from the perimeter brought the Germans back to even 29 seconds before the last interval.

Elsie Graves put GB ahead just 21 seconds into the fourth quarter, however back-to-back goals in 53 seconds saw Germany retake the lead when the game turned into its last four minutes. The Brits equalised twice in the remaining time, only for Germany to net a penalty to complete the scoring.

Finishing their campaign on a high note against Slovakia, Great Britain were 2-6 ahead by half-time, before stringing together a 4-0 rush in the last two minutes before the last break for 4-10, which set them on the road for a comfortable victory.

Great Britain’s sharpshooters Zianna Wright and Amelie Perkins fired in four goals each, which remarkably took Perkins’ overall tournament total past the 50-mark to 51 from the eight games.

Reacting to their 13-6 win over Slovakia to seal 11th place overall, Zianna Wright said:

“It was such a nice way to our tournament after two losses, unfortunately against Israel and Germany, that was great for the team to end on such a nice win and a great team performance.

“For a team with players that have not ever played at Europeans, it was a lovely way to end our tournament. It's obviously a team performance and the goals only come from the team working hard, good passing in attack and then playing together, but it was a lovely way [for me] to end the championships personally with those goals.”

Full results of the European Aquatics U18 Women Water Polo Championships can be found here, with live streaming playback on euroaquaticstv.com.