Delaine Mentoor sees the team’s performance at the recent FINA World Championships in Budapest as a big step forward and hopes that the current squad will be given more time in order to form a cohesive unit.
FILE: The South African senior women’s national water polo team ahead of their departure for the FINA World Championships in Hungary on 12 June 2022. Picture: Swimming South Africa – Water Polo/Facebook
JOHANNESBURG – South Africa’s women’s national water polo team ended in 13th position out of 16 teams in the final standings at the recently concluded FINA World Championships in Budapest.
For a country with fervent sports fans who are used to a fair amount of success on the world stage, this might seem like a failure, but coach Delaine Mentoor reckons that they were successful at the tournament.
The 29-year-old has seen it all and she recalls a time, when she was a player on the team, that they were the perennial losers, finishing in last place and conceding an embarrassing amount of goals. This time around she is happy to see some improvement from her young squad.
“I think it’s one of the first years that we’re actually successful. I mean, we were in USA’s pool, they won the world champs and Netherlands won the bronze medal,” Mentoor said.
For the first time ever, an African team won two games at the championships and they narrowly lost by one goal to Argentina while conceding 11 fewer goals this time around against the Dutch than they did at the Tokyo Olympics less than a year ago. Mentoor is happy to accept any progress made.
Competing at the international level is not easy for South Africa. Water polo is a minority sport and while several South Africans have played in professional leagues in Europe, most of the players are amateurs who must balance full-time jobs with the demands of a high-performance sport.
Mentoor sees the performance in the Hungarian capital as a big step forward and hopes that the current squad will be given more time in order to form a cohesive unit
“Something the selectors have to look at is to keep this group of ladies together because they’ve started something. If we look at any team in the world whether an amateur or a professional, if they train together, they will do well. This team has zero training together ahead of meeting at the airport,” Mentoor said.
The team’s next major assignment is the Commonwealth Water Polo Championships which are set to be held in England in November this year, however, there is no clarity on whether they will happen as scheduled.
Mentoor hopes to do well at that tournament and build on from there.
“I do see a successful future and I think it also does need to start with kind of growing the sport in our own country,” Mentoor said.
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