All eyes were on the city of Sabadell, and Club Natacio Can Llong this afternoon as a number of draws were made for several upcoming LEN tournaments for the U15 and U17 age groups.
In August, the Agean Region of Turkey and the city of Manisa will host both the male and female U17 tournaments. The U15 competitions, however, will take place in Podgorica for men’s matches and Zagreb for women’s matches, echoing the same venues as the recent Men’s World Aquatics World Cup.
A significant alteration has been made to the age-group championships, as all four events – U17 men and women, U15 men and women – will adopt a new playing format. Consistent with World Aquatics and their junior Worlds, the preliminary rounds of the respective European Championships will be split between higher-seeded teams and those that have qualified.
The eight highest-ranked teams in each championship will be drawn into two groups of four (A and B), allowing these stronger teams to engage in a series of high-profile matches in the preliminaries. The top two ranked teams from both groups will advance directly to the quarter-finals.
Simultaneously, the qualifying teams will also be categorized into two groups of four (C and D) and compete in a round-robin tournament. Subsequently, the highest-ranked teams will compete in crossover matches with the fourth-placed teams from Group A and B, while the second-ranked teams from C and D will face off against the third-ranked teams from Group A and B. The victors of these crossover matches will progress to the quarter-finals, after which the competition will continue as usual.
(An exception will be made for the boys’ U15 championship, as all 26 participating teams will compete. Thus, in addition to the top eight, the remaining teams will be drawn into groups C, D, E, and F.) Therefore, only the group winners will go to the crossover round against 3rd-placed and 4th-placed teams from Division 1. From the quarterfinals, the format will be the same as for all the remaining three tournaments.
European U17 Water Polo Championships
Men (8-14 August, Manisa)
Group A – Hungary, Spain, Montenegro, Croatia
Group B – Serbia, Greece, Italy, Netherlands
Group C – France, Romania, Poland, Turkiye
Group D – Malta, Georgia, Germany, Ukraine
Women (29 July–5 August, Manisa)
Group A – Hungary, Italy, Spain, Croatia
Group B – Greece, Netherlands, France, Israel
Group C – Slovakia, Malta, Romania, Switzerland
Group D – Serbia, Ukraine, Great Britain, Ireland, Turkiye
European U15 Water Polo Championships
Men (8-16 July, Podgorica)
Group A – Spain, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro
Group B – Croatia, Greece, Serbia, Turkiye
Group C – Malta, Moldova, Bulgaria, Lithuania
Group D – France, Bosnia and Hercegovina, Israel, Ireland, the Netherlands
Group E – Georgia, Switzerland, Ukraine, Germany
Group F – Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Czech Republic
Women (24-30 June, Zagreb)
Group A – Italy, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia
Group B – Spain, Greece, Israel, Netherlands
Group C – Czech Republic, Ireland, Ukraine, Romania
Group D – Turkiye, Slovakia, Germany
More articles about the European Championships
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