International Canoe Federation

Download the document here

Canoe Polo is now played by over 50 countries in all continents of the world with increasing press and television interest. Europe provides the fiercest and closest of competitions with international tournaments nearly every weekend throughout the year.
August 2010 saw a new partnership between Conti, Canoe Polo and the International Canoe Federation. Conti Canoe Polo balls will be used at all the World and Continental Championships from now until 2014.

About this new partnership, ICF Canoe Polo Chairman, Greg Smale says; “In 2009 we saw the Conti ball being used at the Asian Championships. We were immediately impressed and having extensive technical experience in Canoe Polo for many years it seemed an ideal choice to choose Conti as our ball provider. I can only praise Conti for their professional approach to supporting Canoe Polo and look forward to working with them over the next four years.”
Mr. Yang, Wei-Chao (Paul) – Vice president of Conti Sports told the ICF; “Conti, as a professional canoe polo ball manufacturer, is very pleased with the corporation with ICF. We are very confident that players will be showing their best skills with Conti balls in their hands.”
 

ICF web site news article:
http://www.canoeicf.com/icf/NewsMedia/News/Conti-Official-Ball-Sponsor-for-Canoe-Polo.html
Two Conti banners were displayed on each of the four playing areas and the Conti logo included in the official spectator programme. 

At the 2010 ICF Canoe Polo World Championships in Milan, Italy the category of Under 21 Women was added to the programme with 64 teams from 25 countries competing in these final rounds.

Held every two years, and with teams needing to qualify in other competitions, the 9th World Championships were anticipated to be the most exciting yet, and lived up to their promise!
The countries that competed in final rounds included Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Spain, France, Great Britain, Germany, Hungary, Iran, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, New Zealand, Poland, Portugal, Russia, South Africa, Singapore, Switzerland, Sweden, Chinese Taipei and the United States of America.
 

With the championships in glorious sunshine, in part being televised by Rai TV, (Matches recorded Rai-Sport – approximately 400,000 viewers and matches live on Rai 1 approximately 2.5 million viewers) together with the launch of the Conti ball sponsorship there was an extra ‘edge’ to all teams throughout the championships.

2009 the points system changed, together with the introduction of an ‘overtime/golden goal’ rule which replaced penalty shoot-outs. These changes have been widely welcomed by athletes, federations and the media and have generated more attacking play.

New Zealand (5th), Canada (15th and automatically qualified for 2012 for the first time) and in particular Switzerland (4th) all made significant progress in the world rankings.

The Men’s teams from Denmark, Sweden and Belgium all qualified well through their groups added to the ‘stress’ on the so called top teams.

Mention should be made of Poland who have really progressed in all categories, in particular the Men who only just missed the cut into the top 12.
 

The success of the Great Britain Women’s team deserves special mention. In 2009 they were the first team to hold all three top titles simultaneously; 2008 ICF Canoe Polo World Champions, 2009 World Games Canoe Polo Champions and

the 2009 ECA European Canoe Polo Champions. Their success saw them nominated and into the last 3 of the internationally renowned Sunday Times Newspaper ‘Team of the Year’.
They continued their dominance by winning again in Milan – an outstanding achievement!
 

The 2010 ICF Canoe Polo World Champions are:
• Men - France
• Women – Great Britain
• U21 Men - Germany
• U21 Women – France