Canoe Polo News - 29 March 2004

The International Canoe Federation has today announced that Federations will need to qualify for the 2006 and all future World Canoe Polo Championships.

The 2004 World Canoe Polo Championships in Miyoshi Japan will be the first Qualification Event for the 2006 World Championships to be held in the Netherlands.

In each of the Men's and Women's categories the top 16 teams at the 2004 Worlds will qualify automatically for the 2006 World Championships provided that they participate in their Continental Canoe Polo Championships in 2005. The teams that win each of the five Continental Canoe Polo Championships in 2005 will also qualify for the 2006 Worlds. In the event that a team has already qualified as one of the top 16, then the next best placed federation in that Continental Championship will get the Continental place. The ICF will allocate a further three wildcards. A total of 24 Men and 24 Women teams will participate at the 2006 Worlds.

Qualification will also be required for the Under-21 categories. Participating teams in Miyoshi will have the chance to qualify automatically for the 2006 Worlds by placing in the top 5 teams provided that they participate in their Continental Canoe Polo Championships 2005. As in the Men's and Women's  categories, the five teams winning their Under-21 Continental Canoe Polo Championships in 2005 will also qualify for the 2006 World Championships. A total of 10 Under-21 Men and 10 Under-21 Women teams will participate at World Championships in the Netherlands.

The 2002 ICF Congress changed the qualification rules for the World Canoe Polo Championships and as such these rules are already in effect.

At the 2006 World Canoe Polo Championships there will be 4 categories participating: Senior Men, Senior Women, Under-21 Men and Under-21 Women.