The European Water Polo Championships got underway in front of a capacity crowd at the Spaladium Arena in Split and in the presence of the Prime Minister of Croatia, Andrej Plenkovic.
To celebrate this special occasion LEN’s First Vice President Josip Varvodic presented the Prime Minister with an Honorary Plaque which paid tribute to the hospitality shown by the Croatian people to the LEN family.
During the opening ceremony of the 35th LEN European Water Polo Championships First Vice President Josip Varvodic gave the following speech:
Good evening.
As the first Vice President of LEN, please allow me to welcome our distinguished guests.
Andrej Plenkovic , the Prime Minister of Croatia
Nikolina Brnjac , the Minister of tourism and sport
Zlatko Matesa – the President of the Croatian Olympic Committee
Blsženko Boban – the Prefect of Split-Dalmatia County
Ivica Puljak – the Mayor of Split
And my friends and colleagues from LEN
Kyriakos Giannopoulos – LEN Vice president
Fernando Carpena and Milos Mracevic – LEN bureau members
Representing the Technical Water Polo Committee: Chairman Angel Moliner, Vice Chairman Tamas Molnar and Secretary Dejan Perisic while leading the team of referees is Boris Margeta, President of the World Water Polo Referee association.
From the local team let me also pay tribute to:
Mladen Drnasin President of the Croatian Water Polo Federation
Perica Bukic – the executive director
Renato Zivkovic – Federation’s General Secretary and Executive Director of the 35th LEN European Water Polo Championships Split 2022
Let me now give a big welcome to the Team officials and all ATHLETES.
Thank you all for transforming Split into a temple of water polo.
I am proud and honoured to stand here in front of you, in my home country, as LEN first Vice President.
Croatia has welcomed Europe’s best teams to Split for an exciting two weeks of water polo and can now celebrate staging one of the 2 top water polo tournaments in the world.
I wish all competitors the best of luck and success. Enjoy the competition and relish the unique friendships at the heart of sport.
Thank you very much.
