Big move helps Mount water polo players reach their goal

COMMITTED: Mount Maunganui's Alisha Winstanley, left, and Malia Josephson represented New Zealand at the FINA World Women's Youth Water Polo Championships in Auckland this month. PHOTO/Supplied

Leaving friends and family behind to move to Auckland was all part of chasing their dream of representing New Zealand for Malia Josephson and Alisha Winstanley.

The two teenagers, who grew up together attending Papamoa Primary School, Mount Intermediate and Mount Maunganui College, decided their best chance of making the New Zealand Youth water polo team was to move to Auckland.

And so this year they did.

Malia had her final year of secondary school at St Cuthbert's College while Alisha went to Westlake Girls' High School.

Earlier this month that sacrifice paid dividends with both of them selected in a strong New Zealand team that competed well at the Fina World Women's Youth Water Polo Championships held at the National Aquatic Centre in Auckland.

New Zealand placed 10th in the world, a step up from their 2014 result of 13th in Madrid, with Russia winning ahead of Spain, Italy and the Netherlands.

In pool play New Zealand faced three of the teams that made the semifinals.

Alisha says the overall performance was satisfying enough.

"I think we did pretty well. We were aiming for a top eight but the teams were quite good this year and everything," Alisha said.

"It was pretty cool playing teams that were so high up and just learning how different they were and just trying to adjust our play so we could try and be competitive against them.

"We played against some players who had been to the Olympics, including one from the Spanish team who was really good."

From a personal perspective Alisha was disappointed by the lack of game time she got as the back-up goalkeeper to Auckland's Antonia Young.

"I was the assistant goalie and only got one quarter out of the six games which was a bit upsetting for me. I wanted to make the worlds squad so I trained the whole year for that. It helped playing club for North Harbour," Alisha said.

"Leaving my friends and family was really hard but I am glad I did it. I have come so far and improved so much. It was definitely worth it.

"I am still going to keep it up because I still love the sport and will try to keep going with New Zealand as long as I can."

Despite New Zealand hosting the world championships, the players still had to pay $2200 to play at home because water polo is not funded by Sport New Zealand.

Alisha says that was tough but she is now looking ahead to 2017 in a positive light.

"At the moment I am just focused on club water polo next year and just try and get up as high as I can.

"Then we have another world junior champs in Greece next year which would be pretty cool to get into."