HaBaWaBaSouthEastAsiaiscoming!

For several years some Singaporean clubs have been participating in the HaBaWaBa International Festival in Lignano Sabbiadoro, Italy: in particular Pacer Water Polo Academy is one of the clubs that has shown greater harmony with the values of the “game of the ball in water". During the last Festival, the leaders of Singaporean club and Waterpolo Development decided to collaborate in order to further expand the boundaries of the HaBaWaBa world signing of an agreement that allows Pacer Water Polo Academy to organise HaBaWaBa South East Asia in the coming years. 

This will be a new touring event, which will be held each year in a different country in South East Asia: Malaysia, Indonesia and Thailand are the candidates to host the 1^st edition. Therefore the agreement with Pacer Water Polo Academy, represented by Ting Kum Luen, will add another important stage to the HaBaWaBa International Circuit, which since 2023 also includes HaBaWaBa China, the tournament starting in Chengdu in just over a month's time (15-20 August).        "In 2008, at the end of the 1^st HaBaWaBa International Festival which 36 teams participated in, we were happy and satisfied - President of Waterpolo Development Bruno Cufino stated - However we could never have imagined that in 15 years we would be able to export our event, and more than that, our mission and the values that HaBaWaBa represents to so many corners of the world. In addition to several European countries and after Canada, Brazil, China and soon Egypt, we are now proud to have reached an important agreement that involves many countries in a vast area of Asia. We’re talking countries with rich culture and ancient traditions, which have all the prerequisites to join the the values, not only about sports, that waterpolo stands for”. "We have reached a very important goal for Pacer Water Polo Academy, we aim to spread in South East Asia the vision of kids waterpolo of Waterpolo Development, a vision we share - says Ting Kum Luen -. We operate in Singapore, where however the cost of logistics is very high and it’s difficult to organize a competition without losing money. After discussing this with the Waterpolo Development board, we thought of including all the South East Asian countries in the project: we are talking about 11 countries, which only 5 or 6 have senior waterpolo teams of. Starting developing waterpolo at kids level in these countries would be positive, some of them have started some programs, like Malaysia last year with U11 and U13 age groups, while Indonesia has a couple of U11 teams. It’s a good thing, but most of these countries can’t run a national competition, because maybe there are only two or three clubs in their country”.  “Thanks to HaBaWaBa South East Asia - Ting states - we can get clubs from these countries to bring their U11 and U13 teams together and start the development of waterpolo. We will probably start with a tournament with very little numbers, we aim to have teams from Malaysia, Singapore, maybe Indonesia and Thailand. However being able to have a competition, even a small one, will be good. Being part of the HaBaWaBa International Circuit maybe we will be able to involve clubs from China, Japan and even Australia. We will try to organize the 1^st HaBaWaBa South East Asia in 2024, but it will not be easy because the timing is tight. If we can’t, we will certainly start in 2025. Like Waterpolo Development, we want to spread the love of sport and waterpolo among kids”.

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