THE CANADIAN PRESS
OTTAWA — Canada’s national water polo teams will have new leadership after men’s coach Dragan Jovanovic and women’s coach Pat Oaten were assigned to new front-office roles.
Water Polo Canada announced Wednesday that Jovanovic and Oaten have been appointed as high-performance directors on the men’s and women’s team respectively.
Aleksandar Beslin will take over as men’s head coach, while Justin Oliveira will lead the women’s team on an interim basis until a full-time coach is appointed later this summer.
Both teams just missed out on advancing to the 2012 London Olympics. The women’s team lost 7-6 to Russia in the quarter-finals in last month’s qualifying tournament. A win would have seen Canada through. Earlier, the men’s team lost 10-6 to Greece in a qualifying quarter-final.
"We were all very disappointed after both teams just missed qualifying for this summer’s London Games," said Water Polo Canada executive director Ahmed El-Awadi. "At the same time, we can’t overlook the fact that Canadian water polo has made tremendous strides in recent years. Our athletes are highly skilled, physically fit and deeply passionate about the game and there is every reason to be optimistic about the future."
The women’s team leaves for China next Saturday to compete in the World League Super Final.
The men’s team will play a series of exhibition matches against Hungary in Vancouver and Victoria early next month.