LEN President Antonio Silva described the experience of meeting King Felipe VI and Queen Letizia of Spain as “a real honour” following a reception in the Spanish capital Madrid.

The event, hosted by the Spanish Royal Family, was held in recognition of the gold medal-winning achievements by the nation’s male and female water polo players at the respective 2022 World and European Championships.

The men beat Italy following a penalty shoot-out in the Budapest 2022 Fina World Championship final in July.

The women successfully defended their LEN European crown with a 9-6 victory over Greece at Split 2022 in Croatia last month.

The King and Queen discussed the events with national players from Spain and had the chance to hold the trophies from the Women’s European Championships as well as the Men’s World Championships. They were also presented with their own Spanish Water Polo t-shirts during the reception.

“The experience was great,” LEN President Antonio Silva told LEN TV.

“They were very pleased with the results of Spanish, but not only in the senior championships, they were also very interested in all the age-groups in water polo as well.

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President Silva continued; “it was a real honour to see how much His Majesty really cares about the sport and aquatic development.”

In addition to the two Spanish national teams, key support staff and LEN President Silva, other high-profile figures present in Madrid included the Fina president Husain Al-Musallam, Royal Spanish Swimming President Fernando Carpena, the nation’s Sports Minister and Sports National Ornariam President.