Water polo: Success fuels dream of 2010 Games

Buoyed by double bronze medal success, New Zealand water polo officials are joining a push for their sport to be included in the Commonwealth Games programme for New Delhi in 2010.

New Zealand's men's and women's teams finished behind Australia and Canada at the Commonwealth championships in Perth last week.

With a solid core of good quality eligible nations, including those three, South Africa, England, Cyprus and Malta, there are hopes of presenting a strong case for full sport status to the Commonwealth Games Federation.

"We had a meeting in Perth and are getting [world swimming body] Fina on our behalf, as well as each of our water polo federations, to lobby the Games Federation, to have water polo as part of the aquatics programme," said NZWP board member and competition programmes organiser Chris Hayward yesterday.

In Perth, the New Zealand men had three wins, a draw and two losses in round robin matches, lost their semifinal to Canada 18-7 before beating South Africa 8-5 in the third-fourth play-off to nail the bronze.

The women won four and lost two of their preliminary games before narrowly losing their semifinal to Canada, 9-7. They beat England 10-7 in the bronze game.

Rebecca McGuinness bagged 20 goals, equal third overall, while Kirsten Hudson got 15, and Lisa Van Raalte and Emily Cox 11 apiece.

Lachie Tijsen, the youngest member of the men's team, topped the hit parade with 20, making him third overall, while Tim Grace and Richard Claridge scored 12 and 9 respectively.

The women next head for the world league competition in China in June-July, where they will meet the hosts and Australia.

There are plans to tour Japan and Europe over December and January.

The men are hoping to visit China and Japan late in the year, to provide opposition for countries preparing for the Asian Games in December.

Both will contest the world champs in Melbourne in March next year and hope their solid showings in Perth will act as an attraction for teams looking for solid competition in the weeks leading up to the world champs.

"The whole result in Perth was a real confidence booster," Hayward said.

"And it is probably going to let other countries realise they can come to New Zealand and expect reasonably good games as well. So it may open the door for us in terms of international competition here."