Sri Lanka Water Polo had a very distinguished guest in the country over the course of the last two weeks, with probably the most decorated contemporary water polo player, Gergely Kiss of Hungary touring Sri Lanka to conduct promotion and coaching camps to promote the sport.
He was here for just over two weeks and spent a lot of time with the national squads who were very much in awe of the great man.
The 6 foot 5 in Hungarian southpaw is a triple Olympic Gold Medalist and Water Polo World Championship winner. His triumphs in Sydney, Athens and Beijing were glorious victories for Hungary, while Kiss recalled that the Athens games were the most memorable as his goals were instrumental in the Hungarian fightback against their opponents.
Turning semi professional by age 16, in a sport which is as popular in his home country as cricket is in Sri Lanka, Kiss was soon playing in professional leagues around Europe and making a name for himself. He was part of a physically huge Hungarian team that was dominant in its era across European championships and Olympic games. Kiss brought his experience of this world domination here to us in Sri Lanka which the enthusiastic young water polo teams were quick to lap up.
What Kiss was quick to say though was that the training that is encountered at Hungarian top level cannot be implemented in Sri Lanka without significant adjustments. He advised that Sri Lanka needs to focus on smaller Asian opposition before taking the next step. The last tour of Malaysia by the U21′s was a step in the right direction, by getting experience against opposition that is of a similar standard. There is nothing to be gained from being thrashed by 20 odd goals and the performance of the juniors spoke of some good potential.
Kiss also spent time with the coaches in the Sri Lankan set up, and with hindsight probably should have spent more time with them than even they players. There is little that players of our standard can do to emulate a three time gold medalist, even if it is demonstrated first hand. However, with the coaches, there are a lot of technical pointers they can and should have picked up during Kiss’ visit.
It was also good to see a Novices tournament being conducted with the participation of some new school teams. This tournament culminated with Kiss playing for the national champion Navy team against the Old Thomians’ Swimming Club in an exhibition match between the top two sides in Sri Lanka. OTSC also had a Hungarian player, with Zoltan, their coach, playing for the dark caps. Although it was an exhibition game, the match itself didn’t live upto lofty Olympic standards and was more than a little messy. Sri Lankan water polo is still a little rowdy and unstructured as opposed to being physical. The refereeing also has much to do with this, and it is a facet of the sport that needs to improve in parallel to any improvements in coaching and playing. Nevertheless, it was good to see an Olympic champion in the water. The most obvious difference between him and the local players though was the physical superiority, which unfortunately is not a gap we can bridge in a hurry.
As a result of that we will probably need to focus on speed agility and excellent ball movement. As Kiss pointed out the Spanish players are some of the smaller players in Europe, despite which they have been tremendously successful on the world stage. It was great to have a man of such stature here for such a long visit. Kudos to SLWP for getting him down. However, whether we are at the stage where our players can get the maximum from him is debatable. We will have to wait and see the national players performance in the upcoming League tournament.
Well done also to SLWP for reviving the long dead tournament after a lapse of six years. It will be fun times to play water polo in a league format at home and away pools. Now if only I could find a team to play for.
