Scott’s joy as he gets Olympic all-clear
9:09am Tuesday 12th July 2011 in Olympics 2012
ED Scott’s Olympic dream has come true after Great Britain water polo were given the green light to compete in London 2012 for the first time in 56 years.
Scott, from Horwich, is the goalkeeper and will now join 550 other British athletes in competing at the Games next summer.
Water polo was one of six sports to be recently guaranteed a host-nation spot for 2012, following funding awarded to the sport since the Beijing Olympics in 2008.
The 23-year-old said: “It’s fantastic.
It’s the culmination of all the hard work and sacrifices everyone of us had made.”
Scott first played the sport as an 11- year-old pupil at Bolton School, where he trained three times a week.
During that period, he was part of a side which achieved unprecedented success with the team being crowned National School Champions in his first year.
More honours were to follow as the team retained the title for the remainder of Scott’s school years.
He currently plays for City of Manchester in the British Water Polo League Division One, helping them finish third last season.
The GB stopper has just completed his third year of studies at Leeds University where he is taking a medical degree, but he plans to take 12 months out to concentrate on Britain’s Olympic preparations.
Due to recent funding cuts by the British Olympic Association (BOA), however, members of the GB squad have been forced to play in the more lucrative leagues across Europe. Eastern Europe is a hotbed for water polo, with many players heading to the likes of Serbia to continue their development, while Scott will have a trial with Barcelona later this month. Yet these changes have not hampered the preparation of the GB team, with Scott helping the national side to a 8-7 victory against Georgia in a European 2012 qualifier on Saturday in Manchester.
Even though victory was not enough for qualification to next year’s championships, the side were still in buoyant spirits.
Scott said: “Preparations are going well. The next year we’re solely concentrating on the Olympics and we’re looking to put in some big performances in London against the top-12 teams in the world.”
The win over Georgia was the final game for the side in the qualifiers and leaves Great Britain currently lying 16th in the European rankings.
click2find
