In an exciting announcement today by the governing body for European Aquatic Sport (LEN), Manchester has been awarded host city status for the European U17 men’s water polo Championship qualification tournament, which will take place over three days from May 11-14^th.

Following months of preparation by Manchester City Council, British Swimming and the ASA’s England Water Polo led by Chairman Ian Elliot, it has been decided that the qualifying event will be hosted at the East Manchester Leisure Centre, a purpose-built international water polo facility complete with outstanding spectator facilities and transport links, located in East Manchester.

Great Britain has been drawn in Group C and will face Romania, Ukraine, Israel and Lithuania.

Although the GB team that will compete in Manchester in May has yet to be selected, the squad drawn from all the home nations has been training hard with the ultimate goals of representing their country, and becoming the first junior GB men to qualify for the European Water Polo Championships in over 10 years.

Chairman of England Water Polo, Ian Elliot said, “This group of athletes is highly talented and dedicated to achieving their sporting goal of representing Great Britain at the European Championships in September. The support of Manchester City Council, and the big benefit of having home advantage in the qualifying tournament now makes this a realistic prospect, and I for one am very excited!”

Before the Manchester event takes place, the athletes will be representing England, Scotland and Wales, competing in April in the EU Nations Water Polo Cup event in the Czech Republic and will be supported in the training build-up in Manchester by the City of Manchester Water Polo Club, University of Manchester and Manchester Metropolitan University.

Meanwhile, the GB U17 women are one of the 17 teams entered in the 2017 women’s European Junior Water Polo Championships. All are directly qualified to the Championship proper to be played in Novi Sad (SRB) on 19 – 27 August 2017.

Further information about the Manchester event, including game schedule and ticketing information, will be posted as soon as it is available.

* Update
LEN Qualification Tournament for the U17 Men’s European Junior Water Polo Championships (GROUP C) featuring Great Britain, Israel, Romania, Lithuania and Ukraine.

COMPETITION SCHEDULE / FIXTURES

Thursday 11 May
1730 Ukraine V Israel
1900 Lithuania V GBR

Friday 12 May
1730 Romania V Lithuania
19.00 GBR V Israel

Saturday 13 May
0930 Israel V Lithuania
1100 Ukraine V Romania
— *England v Scotland (senior teams) —
17.30 GBR V Ukraine
1900 Israel V Romania

Sunday 14 May
0930 Lithuania V Ukraine
1100 Romania V GBR

For more info and live web stream / online streaming details, see www.waterpoloengland.org nearer the time.

Or check out the England Water Polo YouTube channel here > https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCe3uweZCW4_2qWvmhJ811PQ

There will be four Qualification Tournaments for the European Junior Waterpolo Championships in total and they will be held in Graz (Austria), Ljubljana (Slovenia), Manchester (Great Britain) and Tbilisi (Georgia). Top two teams from each group qualify.

Dates of the tournaments are 11-14 May 2017. This is the groups’ composition.

The Men’s European Junior Water Polo Championships will be played in Malta on 10 – 17 September 2017.

The seventeen teams entered for the Women’s European Junior Water Polo Championships 2017 are directly qualified to the Championship proper to be played in Novi Sad (SRB) on 19 – 27 August 2017.