19 days ago, I set off to a new adventure, a trip that would allow me to follow my passion, water polo, and enjoy every second of it. For the first time in history, Peru national team was going in a 41-day trip participating in three different tournaments and a one-week practice camp. We would be going to the US for the Pan-American games, to Serbia for the practice camp and to Turkey for the Pre-World Cup and the World Cup.
The Pan-American games have a high level, lets say 75/100, we would be measuring our strengths with teams such as: Brazil, USA and Canada, who are Americas leading countries in these sports. We would be playing with other teams such as: Puerto Rico, Trinidad and Tobago, Argentina and Mexico. This tournament classified the top 5 teams to the World Cup in Russia on 2015.
After 11 days of competitions we went to Serbia, the home of water polo. Where you can actually gain a living from this sport, where water polo players are called Patriots and especially where water polo is one of the national sports, just imagine how many players there are! In Belgrade, we would be playing against Serbia’s national team U18, U16 and U15 and be training 6-8 hours per day! 7 days after we would be leaving towards Turkey, for the real challenge.
At turkey we would be playing the World Cup and Pre World Cup, these tournaments have 100/100 toughness level; intense! Croatia, Serbia, Iran, USA, Egypt, Turkey and Turkey B will participate in the Pre World Cup. Every team will play hard to win respect, not only for their countries and teams but also from the referees. Then, the World Cup. It’s the first time that Peru classifies to a World Cup in all of its history. It’s an honor to be chosen as team captain and represent the country in an event like this. There are just 20 teams that qualify. Four series of five teams are separated. |
Series A USA Kazakhstan Hungary Italy Egypt | Series B Australia Montenegro Iran Japan Argentina | Series C Brazil Spain Turkey Russia South Africa | Series D Peru Serbia Croatia Canada New Zealand |
Only two teams of each series will pass to the next round, where they will be able to have a chance to play for gold. On the other hand, the other 3 teams will play for the remaining spots. The World Cup will take place from August 2nd to August 10th. After the FINA Youth World Cup we will be returning to Peru. Now our goal is to concentrate and be in the top 12. #Porla12