Maximum number of entries: 24 teams.
Rank | Country | ![]() |
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Total |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | HUN | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
1 | RUS | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
3 | ITA | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
3 | SRB | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
The first university water polo tournament was played at the Summer Universiade in Rome, Italy. Since then, student players from all over the world enjoyed to compete under the FISU five stars. As far as numbers go, water polo steadily increased from one Universiade to the next. Until 2009 the Summer Universiade programme featured only university men’s water polo tournament. Women's competitions debuted at the 2009 Summer Universiade in Belgrade.
During the previous Universiade in Shenzhen the men's national team of Russia, that also included two players of Sintez WPC Artem Odintsov and Pavel Khalturin, took the second spot on the podium. Silver became one of the major breakthroughs of the Russian water polo team in the last ten years.
Water polo came to Russia from England at the early 20th century. First attempts to include water polo in the athletes' curriculum in swimming schools of Saint Petersburg were made in 1906. However, the main populariser of this game was the Shuvalovo Swim School, which was founded in 1908 in the township of Shuvalovo. In 1910 water polo was included in water festivals traditionally held in the school.
Rules of the game were devised in accordance with the international ones. First water polo matches took place in 1912 in Moscow, in the Sandunovsky Baths, and saw the participation of teams of the Moscow Society of Swimming Enthusiasts, Skhodnya Society, Moscow Society of Mountain Skiing and Aquatics and Moscow's water polo squad. In 1910 water polo teams emerge in Baku, Chernigov, later in Kyiv, Batumi, Odessa, Samara, Kharkov.
The first women's match took place in autumn 1928. In the early 1930s matches between Moscow and Leningrad teams became a regular practice, until 1933 these games ended in favour of Leningrad water polo players. Such matches were held up until the Second World War and were resumed in 1946. National water polo championships started again in 1945.
Soviet water polo players took spots on the Olympic podium multiple times. At the 15th Olympics in Helsinki (1952) our squad lost the games to Hungary, Yugoslavia and Italy. But during the next Olympic Games in Melbourne (1956) the USSR national team earned its first Olympic bronze, with Hungary topping the podium and Yugoslavia finishing as a runner-up. At the next three Olympics (Rome 1960, Tokyo 1964 and Mexico City 1968) the USSR water polo squad claimed silver and in 1972 it earned its first Olympic gold in Munich. The Soviet team repeated its gold medal winning success at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, with Yugoslavia placing second and Hungary taking bronze. At the Seoul 1988 Summer Olympics Soviet water polo players lost to Yugolsavia and USA, finishing in the third place. At the Barcelona 1992 Summer Olympics our team, united under the name of the Unified Team, snatched bronze, the Olympic gold going to Team Italy.
The 26th Summer Olympics in Atlanta was not successful for the Russian national water polo team. Russia missed out on the medals, with Spain taking the top spot on the podium. But at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney Team Russia won silver, losing to Hungary in the final match, 6-13. Yugoslavian water polo players claimed bronze. At the 2002 FINA World Championships our water polo squad defeated Team Spain and won the tournament's gold. During the 2002 World Cup in Belgrade Russian water polo players earned gold medals, after they beat Team Hungary in the final match. At the Athens 2004 Summer Olympic Games the national water polo squad took the third place on the podium.
Water polo in Kazan has got rich traditions and long history.
Kazan water polo players first appeared in the All-Union Games of the Spartak Society in the year of 1950 in Lviv. The team was under Anatoly Panaioti, the one who started water polo in Kazan.
In 50s-60s the achievements of water polo in Kazan were more than modest. From the very start, our teams were characterised by sports fighting character, when partaking in the tournaments of all ranks.
First achievements date back to the time when the 50-metre Orgsintez Swimming Pool was put into operation. In the year of 1973 there emerged the adult Sintez water polo team; though, some sources consider that the team’s birthday is November 1974 when the first water polo tournament for Kazanorgsintez prize took place. Among the first coaches, who put much efforts to water polo development in Kazan, was Oleg Novak, an enthusiast, coach, director of the swimming school and Chairman of the Sports Committee of Kazan.
In 1975 Sintez entered the 1st league of the National Championship of Russia. Merited Coach of the RSFSR Vyacheslav Sakharov (as a matter of fact, the first head coach of the Sintez team), Alexey Chernykh (the first captain of the team) and Valery Lelyukh (head coach of Sintez for the period 1975 - 1995) contributed much to further development of the club.
As a result, two years later, in 1977, the team won silver medals of the national championship. 5 players from Sintez entered the RSFSR national team. Another success occured to the team the same year. Juniors of the club won the All-Union Youth Games.
In1980 the team won gold medals of the national championship, and the second success came in the form of gold medals of the All-Union Youth Games.
In 1983 the RSFSR national team won the USSR championship. Viktor Yakovlev, Dmitry Vakhromeev and Andrey Ostrobokov made large contribution to the victory. All they were awarded with gold medals.
In 1985 and 1989 the Sintez team became the RSFSR Champion, gaining the title for the third time.
Sintez joined the major league of the Russian Championship since 1993 and in 1995 our water polo players won the right to play in the European Cups, thus increasing the popularity and image of the team.
In 1995 the team was headed by new coach Evgeny Mishin, under whose guidance the team ranked 4th in the Russian Championship.
In March 2002 the Sintez team changed its head coach, Rustam Yumaev, a graduator of the Kazan water polo school and former captain of Sintez, was appointed head of the team.
Since June 2004, the team was headed by the Merited Coach of Russia Vladimir Zakharov. To begin with, Sintez claimed bronze medals of the national championship in the season 2004-2005, won the Cup of Russia in October 2005, entered the Len Trophy Cup final in 2006 and earned silver medals of the Russian Championship (2005-2006). One season later Sintez brought home Len Trophy (2007) and finished the first in the National Championship of Russia (2006 - 2007).
Together with the team, from the very first day of its existence, is one of the world best referees Andrey Afanasyev.
Pride of the present-day Sintez and Kazan water polo school is Merited Master of Sport Irek Zinnurov, silver and bronze medallist of the Olympic Games in Sydney (2000) and Athens (2004). He earlier played in Sevastopol and Volgograd but now he lives and works in Kazan. Graduators of the Kazan water polo school Alexander Boyko and Nikolay Sharafeev used to represent the Republic of Tatarstan in the USSR national team. Later on, forward Igor Gorbach and goalkeeper Oleg Vladimirov joined the USSR team.
For the 30 years JSC "Kazanorgsintez" is the only sponsor of the team "Sintez". Nail Yusoupov, Leonid Alekhin, Marat Mukhametshin, Il Aitugannov, Gaifutdin Shaikhiev, Anatoly Brikker and Ilshat Mingazov put large contribution to the team development.
Sintez WPC boasts quite a lot of athletic accomplishments: