Rate it!

0 votes

British Swimming have created an elite performance programme in a bid to have both a men's and women's water polo team competing at the London Olympics.

Water polo was identified by UK Sports as one of eight Olympic and four Paralympic sports whose funding would be affected by a £50 million shortfall in private sector money.

"It was clearly a major disappointment that we didn't get the funding level we had budgeted for but we have to be positive to achieve our goals," said British Swimming chief executive David Sparkes.

"The present level of funding will be tilted towards the women's team but we have been working on a number of innovative solutions to continue to develop the men's team and these are now being implemented.

"A lot of good work has gone in to defining our new direction and we're fortunate to have been offered incredible help from the likes of Hungary, Croatia, Romania and Australia to help the men prepare for the Olympics."

While the women's team will continue to train together at the High Performance Centre in Manchester, the new strategy will see the men's team go through three phases.

The team will train together in Manchester until September, to prepare for the European Trophy in Switzerland, before some players depart for overseas clubs in October as part of phase two of the programme.

The final phase will see all Britain's men depart for professional overseas clubs from April 2010 with the team joining together for competition and training camps only.

Eurosport