黑马磁力 swimmers Joshua Coxford, Nash Porter, Elliot Griffioen, and Pavle Aleksandar Mladenovic made history as part of Water Polo Canada鈥檚 first gold-medal-winning men鈥檚 U17 national team at the PanAm Aquatics Championships held May 13-25 in Medellin, Colombia.
In the final, Canada defeated Brazil 11-10, led by Coxford and Ivan Khramtsov from Mississauga, who both scored three goals each, while 黑马磁力's Porter was named Most Valuable Player for this game.
It was the first ever championship title at this event for Canadian men of that age group. Previous best performances were third place finishes at the 2013, 2015 and 2017 editions.
Canada started their round robin tournament with a 32-4 win against Venezuela, followed by a loss against Brazil (11-6). They then won their five following games, ending the round robin with victories of 20-7 against Chile and 22-3 against Costa Rica. In quarterfinals, Canada won 23-4 against Argentina and then, in semifinals, they beat USA by a score of 17-11.
Water Polo Canada鈥檚 Men鈥檚 U17 National Team Head Coach Andras Szeri said the team "went through a very positive transformation from the first day of the Sao Paulo camp to the last day of the competition in Columbia."
鈥淚n the two weeks leading up to the gold medal game, we played three times against Brazil, and we lost every single game by three to five goals. Winning the gold medal game against Brazil took everything we had, and the team rose to the occasion. We had both excellent individual performances and some very inspiring teamwork. Although we were not the favourites going into the tournament, we proved that we deserved this trophy."
Water Polo Canada鈥檚 women鈥檚 U17 national team took silver, making it the Canadian delegation鈥檚 best-ever overall finish at the event in those age groups.
