International Canoe Federation

A relatively young sport, the first ever Canoe Polo World Championships were staged in Sheffield, England in 1994. Now World Championships are held every two years, with Continental Championships in between.

2009 was a Continental Championship year. At the 2009 Canoe Polo Asian Championships in Hualien, Taiwan, Iran dominated the medals table. With their Men’s team taking bronze, their U21 Men’s beating the hosts to win gold and their Women’s team beating Singapore to take gold. In the Men’s final another really close game saw Chinese Taipei win in ‘overtime’ 4-3 against Japan. Singapore put in good performances and won silver and bronze in the Women and U21 Men categories respectively.

At the 2009 World Games in Taiwan, the world’s top 12 teams competed – 6 Men’s and 6 Women’s teams. Matches throughout were very close and a typhoon caused Canoe Polo to move indoors on the final day. The ‘live’ televised Men’s final produced one of the most exciting games of Canoe Polo to date with current world champions Netherlands displaying fantastic ‘power polo’ to go 3-0 ahead in the first half only to be clawed back by the highly technical team from France who finally won 5-4. Great Britain defeated Germany 4-2 in the Women’s final.

The 2009 Canoe Polo European Championships in Essen, Germany attracted 43 teams in four categories. Each of the finals saw different federations winning, proving just how competitive Canoe Polo is. In the Women’s U21, France pipped Great Britain 4-3, while in the Men’s U21, Germany beat France 1-0. In the senior finals, Great Britain’s Women just saw off the Netherlands 1-0 and in the Men’s, Italy won the European Championships for the first time defeating Germany 3-2. The success of the Great Britain Women’s team deserves special mention. They are 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’.

During 2009 ‘test’ events were held in preparation for the full introduction of a three tournament European Cup series in 2010 – guest federations will be able to compete in this series should they be touring within Europe.

The Sydney International Regatta Centre, scene of the 2000 Olympic Games Canoe Sprint event, hosted the 2009 Canoe Polo Oceania Championships. The Men’s category was won by New Zealand with Australia taking the Women.

The same venue also hosted the 2009 Sydney World Masters Games, the biggest mass participation, multi-nation, multi-sport festival in the world. 28 canoe polo teams from 7 countries competed.

Looking forward to the next World Championships; Netherlands Men, Great Britain Women and Great Britain Men are current World Champions and will be defending their titles at the 2010 ICF Canoe Polo World Championships in Milan, Italy from 1st to 5th September. The category of Under 21 Women is added to the programme for 2010, and the maximum entry of 64 teams is expected at the final rounds.

These World Championships are anticipated to be the most exciting yet. The rapidly improving Men’s teams of New Zealand, Chinese Taipei, Iran, Spain and Switzerland out to continue their progress and upset the ‘big names’. In the Women watch out for Chinese Taipei who really made their mark at the 2009 World Games, together with Netherlands who after years of promise are now looking to be a real danger to the ‘traditional top teams’.