Bangor University Canoe Polo

Anyone want this? £30 size XL

Part 4 of the pictures from the Cardiff University Canoe Polo Tournament 2016!

Photo's care of Dougal Gray (Trilogy)

At the highest levels of domestic Canoe Polo in the UK, women are allowed to compete in the same division as men.

University sport, as an important grass roots level of Canoe Polo, should reflect and feed into the highest level of play. It should not be dictated externally by British Universities & Colleges Sport (BUCS) without any consideration for, or discussion with, the sport of Canoe Polo itself.

We see no compelling argument to change the open league to a men’s only league. It only serves to disadvantage both the male and female players of the sport and raises issues of opportunity and participation.

The best international standard ladies produced in this country have come from an open training system that allows them to push themselves with their male compatriots. In our own club, our ladies are fiercely competitive as a result of regularly playing with the men and competing within the open team.
The previous system at BUCS allowed the best female athletes to compete and invest in their ladies team whilst at the same time personally developing within the open league.
It is no coincidence that a significant number of top teams at BUCS in the open league have ladies playing – the minority larger clubs have the ability to choose women ahead of men for their open teams on merit rather than necessity.

At the grass roots level, Canoe Polo is still a relatively small sport which means many of the university clubs are simply not big enough to enter single-s*x teams, especially ladies-only teams. This means a large number of players would be excluded from competing purely because they do not have enough to form separate men and women teams. It is simply not a big enough sport to support such a change.

Although Canoe Polo is a contact sport, s*x does not affect a player’s ability to compete. Removing the open league only serves to set a glass ceiling for our ladies.
Crucially for this sport, it goes against every possible idea of and BUCS’ own .

A few choice quotes from BUCS iniative " ":
"It doesn't matter about my gender, I can still play sport"
"discrimination in sport unfortunately still effect many individuals at university"
"no single individual should feel like they can't participate or compete"

This change is completely unnecessary, actively discriminates and flies in the face of the wider movement to increase competitive female participation in sport.

Finally this change has been dictated half way through the current season when teams - including ourselves - have been training and competing in mixed teams for months.

We believe this change is wholly unacceptable and we will be doing everything possible to see it overturned - and seriously consider our position to BUCS if the changes remain.
We encourage all Canoe Polo clubs in the UK and further abroad to stand with the university clubs and rally against BUCS on this change. Please share this photo.

Sport England British Canoe Polo British Canoeing

Bath University Canoe Club University of Bristol Canoe Club UoN Canoe Polo Exeter University Canoe Club Southampton University Canoe Polo Club Lancaster University Canoe Club Manchester University Canoe Club Cambridge University Canoe Club Sheffield University Canoe Club University of Surrey Canoe Club Loughborough Students Canoe Club University of Hertfordshire Canoe and Kayak Club Durham University Canoe Club Bangor University Canoe Polo