It has felt like a long wait but Spencer Burdack finally gets his chance to experience international competition at the FINA Youth World Championships for water polo in Serbia in August.
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The Adamstown Heights 18-year-old was this week named in a 13-player Australian under-18 team for the world titles in Belgrade from August 11 to 19.
It comes two years after the Hunter Hurricanes player was in the Australian junior team bound for the under-16 world championships in Greece, only to have the event cancelled due to COVID.
"In junior water polo, world championships is the biggest thing you can aim for in terms of tournaments," Burdack said.
"With the men it's world championships and the Olympics. So this has been my goal for quite a while. I played pretty well in national league this year and the coach of the national team watched a lot of those games so I was hoping I'd be quite a good shot at making the team."
Burdack was the second-youngest player in the Hurricanes men's team and the left-handed driver finished the Australian Water Polo League season as Hunter's second-highest scorer.
He produced 22 goals in 16 outings, second to Corey Allan and Australian opens player Keenan Marsden with 25.
"It was good experience to be able to play with players like Keenan, who is in the Aussie Sharks now, and I learnt heaps from him," Burdack said.
Along with Marsden and fellow Hurricanes player Mitch Robinson, Burdack has been identified in a Water Polo Australia squad for the Paris Olympics and beyond.
"I just want to improve and get better, experience international water polo and keep on building my way up through the ranks because my goal is to make it to the Olympics one day," he said.
The Australian under-18 team fly to Montenegro at the end of July to finalise their world title preparations.
"We're there for a couple of weeks of training against the Montenegro team for our age and a couple of professional teams and then we go to Serbia for world championships," Burdack said.
"We're really not sure what to expect. The European teams will all be playing against each other leading up to this and usually as an Australia team we'd go over there two or three times before world championships.
"That's the purpose of going to Montenegro for the training camp, to get experience before. But most of the boys in the team have played national league so hopefully everyone is pretty well prepared."
Hurricanes teammate Sam Bloomfield has been named as a travelling reserve for the Australian under-18 team.
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Renee Valentine
Renee Valentine is a sports journalist with more than 20 years of experience in Newcastle. She is passionate about increasing the visibility of sportswomen in the media. Got a sports story, email Renee at r.valentine@newcastleherald.com.au
Renee Valentine is a sports journalist with more than 20 years of experience in Newcastle. She is passionate about increasing the visibility of sportswomen in the media. Got a sports story, email Renee at r.valentine@newcastleherald.com.au
