It’s double gold for North Harbour Water Polo at the Hawaiian Invitational tournament which has just wrapped up. The boys and girls teams won their U14 divisions with the boys also claiming bronze in their U16 competition.

Teams from Australia, New Zealand and across the mainland United States met in Honolulu over the past week to compete in the 49th Hawaiian Invitational Water Polo tournament. Hawaii Event organiser Dave Fasi said many of the mainland teams had just competed in the Junior Olympics held in LA and were keen to come over and play against teams from other countries. Next year will be the 50^th anniversary so there will be many more teams from other countries attending.

NHWPC representative Sharon Geary, says the 33 players had been preparing for this competition for six months. The club is keen to continue the relationship with Hawaii Water Polo as it was a hugely beneficial experience for their club members. Watching the players improve with every game is very satisfying for all.

“For both the boys and girls teams to win gold has been magnificent for the club and also for all players in New Zealand”,  Sharon tells us, “It would be great to see many of the youngsters playing this sport in our country to come over and experience the water polo here. The number of younger children taking this sport up in New Zealand shows events such as these international tournaments become popular in this age group. The teams fundraised for a number of months to get here so not only is this event about playing water polo but it also taught the teams how important it was to work closely together to raise funds.”

Water Polo in New Zealand has been an emerging sport over the past decade and teams are now achieving significant success on the international stage throughout all age groups. It is really exciting to see a team from Hawaii will be visiting New Zealand in March 2018 so we are in full swing setting up a tri series. We are hoping to see other Auckland clubs becoming involved and giving this team of girls a wide range of games while they are in our country.