Time for the draw
Almost all federations will be present at the draw for the European Water Polo Championships, to be held on Wednesday from 12.00 in Barcelona. The event will take place in the Host Broadcaster TVE’s studios and will be livestreamed free on the LEN website.
After the conclusion of the qualifications last weekend, the LEN Technical Water Polo Committee has confirmed the batches for the Wednesday draw. There are no surprises, the batches are mirroring the final rankings of the 2016 edition staged in Belgrade (SRB).
The European Water Polo Championships venue in Barcelona
The playing format will also be the same as two years ago, the men’s competition will feature 16 teams, drawn to four groups of four. After the round robin the knockout phase commences, group winners will qualify directly to the quarter-finals while the 2nd and 3rd ranked sides should play crossover matches and the teams finishing 4th will play for the places 13-16th.
Twelve teams will take part in the women’s tournament, they will be sorted in two groups of six, after the round robin the top four advances to the quarter-finals, the lower ranked ones play for the places 9-12th.
For the men’s draw, there are three batches. Teams ranked 1-4th in the previous edition appear in the first batch, those placed 5-8th go to the second – including world champion Croatia and Olympic bronze medallist Italy as they didn’t make the medal round in January 2016. The eight sides coming from the qualifications are in the third – from here two teams shall be drawn to each group.
In the women’s draw there are four batches: the first three features the top six teams from Belgrade (finalists Hungary and Netherlands in the first, and so on), while the six qualifiers appear in batch 4 – from here three sides will be added to both groups respectively.
The draw starts from 12.00hrs CET, free live stream will be available on the LEN website.
The European Water Polo Championships will take place on 14-28 July in Barcelona, in the Piscines Bernat Picornell, the world-famous aquatic complex located on the top of the magnificent Montjuic hills. The main pool was the site of the 1992 Olympic Games’ swimming and water polo events, the synchro competition at the 2003 World Championships, the water polo competition at the 2013 World Championships and the 2014 and 2015 Champions League Final Six tournaments.
2018 European Water Polo Championships – Batches for the Draw
MEN
Batch 1
Serbia, Montenegro, Hungary, Greece
Batch 2
Spain, Italy, Croatia, Russia
Batch 3
France, Georgia, Germany, Malta, Netherlands, Romania, Slovakia, Turkey
WOMEN
Batch 1
Hungary, Netherlands
Batch 2
Italy, Spain
Batch 3
Greece, Russia
Batch 4
Croatia, France, Germany, Israel, Serbia, Turkey
6 March 2018