Fifteen water polo teams converged on Paris during IGLA 2007. In recent years the water polo competition of IGLA has been dominated by North America but, in a promising development for the upcoming events in Copenhagen and Cologne, the European location saw six teams from Europe throw themselves into the fray.
While some of the preliminary games highlighted the diversity of skill and experience that this competition manages to attract, others were nail-bitingly close (such as Toronto Triggerfish A giving up top position in their pool in the last second of their last preliminary game). In the small and relatively tight-knit community of water polo, many of these teams had played each other many times before and banter of friendly rivalry was evident around the water polo complex.
Showing once again how physical water polo can be, even when friendly, the preliminary rounds generated their fair share of bruises and scratches. A special mention for Ona Wang from Team New York Aquatics who manages to sustain an injury at every tournament, but outdid herself in Paris by dislocating her shoulder to provide a bit of drama for the spectators. [Sidenote: She is now back in the pool and almost completely recovered... and the time off has done nothing to dampen her enthusiasm for water polo.]
The grand final was an eagerly anticipated showdown between WeHo (West Hollywood) and QUAC (Queer Utah Aquatics Club). WeHo had taken the water polo gold medal at every IGLA since the last time it was in Paris (2000) but could not hold onto their title against the polished machine that QUAC has become in recent years. QUAC dominated the final against a hard fighting WeHo and took the gold (14 to 8). The medalists were rounded out by Atlanta Rainbow Trout who defeated Team New York Aquatics (5 to 3) to take the bronze medal.
Water Polo has always been male dominated, and unfortunately there were not enough women to have a separate women’s division but it was great to see one women’s team from Out to Swim London prepared to take on, and holding their own, in the open division. A well-supported exhibition women’s match was also part of the schedule in Paris.
With IGLA returning to North America in 2008, we hope that all the European teams can make it across the pond to once again allow the water polo tournament to be truly international (and maybe we can even entice some of our Southern Hemisphere friends back to IGLA). It is also looking promising that IGLA 2008 will include a Women’s Division in the water polo competition. So we bid a fond farewell to Paris and thank them for such a great tournament and turn our eyes to Washington DC in 2008.
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