Sliema juniors end season on a high

The official 2011 waterpolo season for juniors came to a close last week with the KO finals for U-14 and U-16 categories at the National Pool, Tal-Qroqq.

Five teams – Exiles, Neptunes, Otters, Sirens and Sliema – took part in the U-16 competition and five others – Exiles, Neptunes, San Ġiljan, Sirens and Sliema – played in the U-14 KO.

Sliema, under the charge of coach Keith Grima Scott, and Joe Sciortino’s Exiles reached the U-14 final with the Blues registering an emphatic 12-2 win.

The goals for Sliema came from Michele Mifsud (5), Luke Hyzler (3), Jeremy Abela (2) and Nicholas Bugelli (2).

Luca Borg scored twice for Exiles.

A couple of days later, Sliema and Exiles renewed rivalries in the U-16 final and this time the Blues, with Sergio Afric as coach, had to sweat to win the decider 6-4.

Aleandro Mifsud (2), Michele Mifsud (2), Nicholas Bugelli and Mark Fenech were on the mark for Sliema while Exiles’s goals came from Jimmy Xuereb (2), Jake Diego and Julian Pace.

The Exiles boys were coached by Frenchman Aurelien Cousin.

On each occasion, ASA president Joe Caruana Curran distributed trophies to the winners and losing finalists.

This is the first time that the ASA had introduced KO competitions to the two age-group categories, in line with the Junior Waterpolo Com-mittee policy to keep young players active for most of the year.

November will see the start of the U-15 and U-17 Winter Leagues as well as a series of competitions for the U-11 and U-13 teams.