Courtesy: LEN
The draw for the qualification tournaments of the 2022 European Water Polo Championships have been conducted yesterday. The race for the eight berths in the men’s event and the six spots in the women’s tournament will take under way next February.
As for the men’s event, teams ranked 9-16th in the 2020 edition take part in the qualification which is open for all other countries wishing to have a shot at playing in Split (CRO) next summer. Nine more entrants signed up for the adventure, so two teams from the 2020 pool were dawn to each group in the company of two from those who hadn’t been able to make the cut two years ago (one group features three of them).
The women’s draw followed the same policy, only the numbers differ: the six sides ranked 7-12th in Budapest 2020 were drawn together with the other eight nations to form three groups.
These are going to be round-robin tournaments held on 17/18-20 February 2020, and the top two ranked teams from each group shall qualify for the European Water Polo Championships, to be held in Split on 27 August-10 September.
Men
Group A (Slovenia) Germany, France, Switzerland, Slovenia, Belgium
Group B (Georgia) Georgia, Slovakia, Belorussia, Poland
Group C (Malta) Romania, Malta, Lithuania, Ireland
Group D (Israel) Turkey, Netherlands, Ukraine, Israel
Women
Group A (Romania) Slovakia, Germany, Ukraine, Romania, Ireland
Group B (Serbia) Greece, Serbia, Switzerland, Turkey, Belgium
Group C (Malta – 4-6 March) France, Israel, Portugal, Malta