The preliminary round of the championship was completed on 8th Mar. Detailed results and next schedule can be downloaded as PDF or Excel files as follows.

EXCEL, PDF1, PDF2, PDF3, PDF4, PDF5

The schedule was modified several times. Present information is as of 11th Mar.

The top league (A1) is composed of Bourbon Water Polo Club, Tsukuba University, Sanken Thirty Warrior, and Senshu University because Waseda University and Nihon University did not attend the Eastern League this year.

On 1st Mar, Bourbon beat Sanken by 14 to 11. Several major players of Bourbon such as Shimizu and Hazui are in Europe, so the difference in the points was not so big. Kenya Yasuda attended this game, and he moved to Nishigaoka for joining the training camp of the Japan National team after the game.

On the same day, Senshu got a victory over Tsukuba. The score of Senshu and Tsukuba was 15 to 7, respectively. Masahiro Ichikawa, who is also a member of the training camp of the National Team, did not attend this game. Interestingly, both of Senshu and Tsukuba guys suggested that the double score difference of this game was caused by the absence of Ichikawa.

The training camp of the Japan National Team was finished on 5th Mar. Ichikawa and Yasuda appeared on the Eastern League on 7th Mar. On this day, Bourbon beat Senshu by 9-7, and Tsukuba beat Sanken by 14-7. It might be the Ichikawa effect. After all, winners points of Bourbon, Tsukuba, Senshu, and Sanken became 4, 2, 2, and 0, respectively. Bourbon may go to the final round, thus, the interest of the preliminary round is that who will get the second position.

On 8th Mar, the game of Bourbon and Tsukuba started from 14:30 was a very excited game. Kan Aoyagi, the key person of Bourbon, floated many times in front of the goal, and sometimes gave some cues for Boourbon bench as a supervisor. As a result, Bourbon won over Tsukuba. The scores were 12-11 for Bourbon and Tsukuba, respectively. The tired atmosphere of the Tsukuba’s young supervisor after the game was impressive.

The game of Senshu and Sanken was started from 18:00. For this game, Animal Taketani, who is one of the legends of the Senshu team, encouraged the Senshu players at the poolside. During the first and second periods, Sanken was advantageous. However, the score at the end of the second period was 7-5 for Sanken and Senshu, respectively. Senshu includes rather young players, so the difference may be not a matter. Senshu got 2 points in the third period, so that the score after the third period was completely even (7-7).

In general, young players have an advantage in the fourth period. Probably, everyone expected victory of Senshu team during the fourth period. However, because Sanken recently invited several young players such as Shinju Tobari from Waseda University, activity of Sanken team was not decreased even in the final period. After all, Sanken beat Senshu by 11-10. Senshu players were very disappointed after the game.

Fortunately, the discouragement of Senshu players was just imaginary fears. When they checked the winners points and scores carefully, they found that they can go to the final round.

The final round to decide a champion will be held on 29th Mar at the Chiba International General Swimming Pool. For the final game, many audience are expected because many children will be associated at the pool for their Junior Olympic Games.