Alstonville Junior Water Polo Club member Sarah Vanem was part of the University of Queensland (UQ) team that won the U/14 gold medal at the Australian Youth Water Polo Championships earlier this month.
The Alstonville club had a total of 11 members take part in the championships across various age groups, both male and female.
Alstonville’s top players augment their training and development by joining bigger teams in Queensland’s metropolitan areas.
Sarah has been playing with the UQ for two years and has represented Queensland at the national championships last year.
The Youth Championships ran over five days and included some very ‘rough and tough’ games according to Sarah’s mum, Liz Vanem.
In the final the UQ team had to take on Australia’s most successful junior water polo team, the Brisbane-based Mermaids.
‘It was the first time the UQ has won the title in that age group,’ Liz said.
‘Sarah has been playing with UQ for two seasons, and they have been working really hard on both swimming and water polo,’ she said.
The club currently has 150 junior members and regularly has 12 teams in the water.
This year they are planning trips to both the NSW Country and Qld State tiltes.
At last year’s Queensland Country titles the club had four teams competing. Three finished in the top four.
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