ICF Canoe Polo Committee activities Q2 2025

Progress ongoing for The World Games 
To sum up the last three months, the message would be busy but often out of sight. With The World Games now less than one month away, Technical Delegate Eva Lindmark, together with ICF staff, have been working to finalise as much as possible. Canoe Polo is almost ready but with a few areas still needing progress, like ticketing for spectator’s not resident in China, live streaming detail, and now the playing schedule is finalised the allocation of referees to games. Chengdu is exciting for us. It is a great venue. There is a good mixture of teams but a lot of seats to fill. If the venue is full, the noise will be incredible – harder for team communication but great as a sport spectacle. I will be taking on the role of Referee Manager at The World Games. The Committee has tried to change roles over the years to increase the expertise across us all.  Joao Botelho from Portugal will be Chief Official this year with Mario Perez Lopez holding the role of Chief Scrutineer, supported by the eight referees and ICF staff. For Chengdu, each referee will be observed by myself and two others with quick feedback on each referee’s performance gathered at the end of each game. There will still be occasional mistakes like many sports, but this observation will identify those having a good day and not so good day as we say in English. There are referees are from eight different countries, selected on ability, with one completely independent referee, Evan Kong from Singapore. I know Evan wishes his country had qualified but also delighted he is able to attend such a prestigious event. The World Games news can be found here https://www.canoeicf.com/canoe-polo-other/chengdu-2025/team-info 

Oceania Championships 
I attended the Oceania Canoe Polo Championships over Easter and conducted refereeing exams and assessment plus some official exams with the result being a dramatic increase in really good quality ICF Referees and Officials. While the Oceania Championships are at present only two countries it is made a big event by the multiple age categories (approximately 180 athletes) and on this occasion the national championships were the week before in the Gold Coast, Australia. 

Results 
Men: Australia; Women: New Zealand; U21 Men: New Zealand; U21 Women: Australia.  

The momentum in Australia appears to be gaining speed again. The first trial of a “mixed game” took place with each team comprising two men and two women. All the coaching materials recorded at the last World Championships guided and overseen by Mario Perez Lopez has now been received and the CAP are deciding how best to release this material. Evan Kong attended the World Masters Games and conducted a referee course. Virginie Brackez is working very hard behind the scenes. Virginie supported by Evan, and us all, is determined to improve the quality of referees, measure their activity (only countable for events on the ICF calendar), ensure their fitness is maintained and where the wording of a few rules is not quite clear enough to deliver interpretation instructions to ICF referees. I have seen the first draft and to really focus minds only three areas have been identified, two are ready and the third is being considered a little more to ensure the sport goes in the direction players want it to. 

Avranches set for European Championships 
As many have become aware there has been a significant problem with a venue for this year’s European Championships and thankfully at the very last moment Virginie took the lead. After lengthy conversations, this year’s European Championships will be in Avranches, France, located close to the world-famous touristic spot Mont Saint-Michel. Thanks to all involved as this is not only an incredibly hard competition to win it is the key qualifier for next year’s World Championships. Myself, Evan, Mario and Mehregan from Iran will be in attendance and in part will deliver coaching and referee courses. Frustratingly, the dates clash with the European Champiosnhips and we can’t be in two places at once. 

By Greg Smale, Chair of the ICF Canoe Polo Committee