FINA athletes will be using a new-look water polo ball come the 2023 FINA World Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
The almost-chequered, distinctive pink and blue rectangles give the ball a new, stunning appearance, let alone the hidden qualities that were unveiled at the FINA Press Conference for the 19th edition of the FINA World Championships in Budapest on Friday.
Mikasa president and CEO Yuji Saeki said: “Today, I’m very much honoured to be granted this opportunity to unveil the FINA officially approved new Mikasa water polo ball.”
It is produced with three concepts, he said — whole-ball surface grip when wet; being environmentally “thoughtful” by reducing rubber waste; and consistency in ball quality.
“We have stopped applying the traditional production process of ‘buffing’, and we have formulated the different foam rubber to achieve more stable ball quality and enhance play-ability of the water polo ball for players and water polo enthusiasts. Now, this original foam rubber has taken over the buffing, which has led us to reduce waste of rubber,” Mr Saeki said.
Also unveiled at the conference was the “Player of the Game” trophy that will be awarded to one competitor after each of the championship’s 96 matches.
The award is in honour of triple Olympic champion and Hungarian captain and finally men’s coach Tibor Benedek, who died two years ago.
On hand for the unveiling of both awards were Hungarian Tokyo 2020 bronze medallists Rebecca Parkes and Krisztian Manhercz, who both said they looked forward to utilising the new ball next year, and triple Olympic champion Tamas Molnar, who spoke on his friendship while playing alongside Benedek.
Looking at the water polo competitions, which start with women on Monday and men on Tuesday, the Olympic medallists had these words to impart:
Krisztian Manhercz — “In Hungary, we have traditions certainly, so to say. Yeah, that’s true that whenever we had big championships staged here at home (since 1926), the men’s team was on the podium. I was lucky to play in the final in 2017, though we lost to Croatia. I hope this year we go one better and claim the gold medal.”
Rebecca Parkes — “It was absolutely awesome to get that Olympic medal in Tokyo after such a long wait. It just gave more motivation for us, to keep going and we are also aware that we owe to our fans as the team couldn’t make the semis five years ago – now we want a medal here, too.”