News
Taking water polo to the Maccabiah
David Nivison is probably one of those rare water polo players who did not come to the sport through swimming. But no matter how he got there, this 17-year-old now plays for South Africa and is the captain of this year’s Maccabi water polo team.
JACK MILNER
“I attended Reddam House in Constantia and they had encouraged pupils to play water polo,” explained the Capetonian. He came to water polo from other land-based team sports, having been a great goalkeeper, but not a big fan of swimming. “Anyway, as a goalkeeper, I don’t have to do much swimming.
“It’s a great team sport. I’ve met so many people and made a lot of friends all over the world. It’s a sport that keeps you fit and active and that’s why I enjoy it.”
David now attends Bishops in Cape Town and is in grade 11 and in the past few years water polo has taken him to places as diverse as Hungary, Malta and most recently, the Czech Republic.
David has excelled to such an extent that he is currently a member of the South African national under-17 squad. The South Africans have been invited over the past couple of years to participate in the EU Nations Cup. Last year the tournament took place in Malta and the South Africans lost in the final. This year they came home from the Czech Republic as gold medallists.
“I don’t know why we get invited to the tournament,” said David. “We are the only non-European Union country to be there. But we are always seen as one of the favourites. But this is Tier 2 of the competition, so we don’t come up against the really strong countries.”
The recent tournament was played at Brno in the Czech Republic and on their way to the final, the South Africans beat Wales 13-1, Lithuania 17-6 and then beat Switzerland 13-10.
In the semi-final they had to beat the home team, which they did, 12-6. The final was against England who had also not lost a match in the competition. The South Africans went on to beat England 8-6 in a hard-fought final, to grab gold in the 12-nation Brno tournament.
It was a tight encounter all the way through and it was only in the final two chukkas that the South Africans edged ahead, with scores of 3-2 and 2-1.
Now David is about to face a very different sort of test as captain of the South African Maccabi water polo team that will compete in Israel in July. South African water polo teams have an excellent record at the Maccabiah and in fact they won gold medals at the first four events held after the establishment of the State of Israel.
Last year David had his first trip to Israel to visit his brother who was studying in Tel Aviv. “I loved it and I can’t wait to get back there again. I’ve been extremely excited and I just want exams to be over and I’d be in Israel already. I believe it’s like the Olympics.”
The majority of the water polo team are based in Cape Town. “We’ve been training together so we’ve got to know one another well. The balance of the team, I think, are from Johannesburg. I don’t know any of them but I understand they have been practising together as well.
“We will probably have a camp beforehand where all of us will get together. As captain, my first job will be to bring the team together. We will be meeting up in Johannesburg; we will all take the same flight out.”
As far as he knows there will be six countries participating in the event. “I’m not sure who all of them are or how good they are, but I would imagine Hungary and the United States are the teams to beat. They are usually, very good.”