Radio: Waterpolo players unable to train for GB team

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The coronavirus has been in the news for affecting people’s mental health. The coronavirus has affected the lifestyles of people all over the world. For many, the removal of sports has left them feeling deflated. Lauren Croud reports on how the sport, waterpolo, has been affected by the lockdown rules.

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Like other sectors, the sporting industry has also been hit hard by the coronavirus pandemic due to lockdown measures. Waterpolo, a contact sport has been unable to resume playing since March and has seen major changes in how the pools are operating. I spoke to a South East Region Water polo player on how the measures have impacted his training.

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“The training is far less regular; I was training four maybe five times a week but now sometimes it’s not even one hour a week. None of the England development or competitions at any level have been on which makes it difficult.”

The sport has set up safety measures with only twelve people allowed in the pool in two groups of six and the changing rooms have remained closed. However, despite this, training is still at a stand-still and is beginning to affect players’ chances of securing a place in the GB team.

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“At the moment I don’t really know when the GB squads and training will be back up and running. But before the pandemic, I was training for the England squad. I had been in the England Academy, but I don’t really know what is going to happen.”

Many of the players are keen to get back into the pool and feel some of the rules should be reviewed, when compared to other sports that are still allowed to train.

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“The restrictions put in place at the pool are understandable but are too extreme and are not consistently applied through out the pool. I think that compared to other sports, such as football, they are much stricter on rules such as social distancing, and this is due to the popularity of the sport and not the safety of the majority.”

I asked one of the players who was training for team GB, how it has affected his chances of getting into team GB.

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“The pandemic has probably affected my chances, because players who are coached or trained by the England squad coaches regularly will be the ones getting picked because they know they have been training and they know how good they are.”

The future for sports is still uncertain, however, with mass vaccination in sight, here is to hoping a return to sport, very soon.