The World Water Polo Championship for players under 16 will be held in Zagreb from 3 to 9 August. Following the example of the World Cup in football, as many as 36 national teams will compete in the third edition of this championship, which will be played in the indoor and outdoor pools of the “Mladost” complex.
The championship will feature 18 teams from Europe, seven from America, six from Asia, three from Africa and two from Oceania.
In the first phase, the Serbian national team’s rivals will be Puerto Rico, the Netherlands, Georgia and Canada. In the first round, the Dolphins will play against the Puerto Rican national team on Monday at 7:05 p.m.
Serbia will be represented at the World Championship by: Nemanja Palezevic, Vuk Milosevic, Marko Abadzic, Nemanja Grgic, Strahinja Milutinovic, Uros Muncan, Andrej Lazic, Blagoje Lale, Dusan Samardzic, Jovan Guduric, Andrija Cubrilovic, Maksim Kreckovic, Marko Bursac, Petar Frenc and Mihajlo Jankovic.
The expert staff consists of:
Vojislav Cupic – coach
Miroslav Mandić – assistant coach
Veljko Ličanin – assistant coach
Đurđa Antunović – physiotherapist
Nenad Vasilevski – coordinator
Goran Čanković – road leader
During the preparatory phase, Vladimir Runjanin, assistant coach, and Radovan Tajšić, fitness coach, also worked with the team.
Coach Vojislav Čupić emphasized that he was satisfied with the way the young water polo players worked during their preparations, during which they participated in the Balkan Games and the International Tournament in Varaždin, where they triumphed.
“I am very pleased, first of all, with the way they trained in Šabac, during the main phase of preparations. In tournaments, we played against teams that we may meet at the World Championship, and that is good because of everything that awaits us. We are only thinking about the next opponent. Right now, we are focused exclusively on the Puerto Rican team. In any case, I am optimistic,” said Čupić.
