In the school holidays three of our Senior A Canoe Polo players - Josh Irwin, Ryan Burmeister, and Zack Sharratt - travelled to the Gold Coast in Australia as part of the Under 18 B New Zealand Canoe Polo team. Josh was the captain.
They played in two tournaments. The first was the Australian State Championships. There was no U18 competition, so they played in the U21 mixed category. After five rounds of play they had three wins and two losses, which put them in the semi-final. Unfortunately, this was against the U18A side, and they lost this game, but they went on to win the third and fourth play-off, earning bronze medals.
The second competition was the Oceania Championships. In this competition they played NZ U18A and lost 2-1, then a 4-2 win over the Australian U18 men’s team, then a 7-2 win over the Australian over 45 men, followed by a 3-2 win over the NZ senior women, then another game against U18 A which resulted in a 2-2 draw, and another game against the Australian U18 men which they won 8-4. This earned the team a place in the semi-final, where they played and won against Australia U18 for the third time. This set up a final against NZ U18 A, which they lost, and ended up gaining a silver medal in this tournament.
To have three PNBHS students in this one National team is a great achievement.
We also had three old boys in the U21B team - Aidan Dassler, Jonny Orr, and William Broderick. All three are currently coaching PNBHS teams. They also got silver medals in their grade, as did Mr Sawyer who was playing for the NZ Men’s team.
