Since receiving the fund, Ciaron has taken part in an international tournament and played several games for the Manchester Hawks Water Polo Team in Division 3 British Water Polo League.

In early December, Ciaron took part in ESSA International tournament which was held in Manchester where he played 2 international games; the first being against Australia, and the second against Romania. Ciaron and the team managed to beat the older and stronger Australians in a hard fought game which we were losing for the first 3 periods. Unfortunately, the team lost against Romania who were a very physical team and coped much better in the 30 meter pool. City of Manchester stepped in for Malta who couldn’t make it to the tournament which meant Ciaron and the Manchester Hawks ended up finishing 2nd overall.

This season, Ciaron has played 6 games for the City of Manchester men’s second team. In the first phase, he played 4 out of the 7 games. He had to miss the first 2 games due to injury. Ciaron and the team won 3 of the 4 games (Hawks 14-6 Otter, Hawks 12-5 Cambridge, Hawks 8-14 Worthing, and Hawks 21-14 Croydon), qualifying the team to go into the second phase to contend for promotion. The 6 games Ciaron has played have been spread over 3 weekends, the first in Grantham, the second in Matlock and the most recent in Gloucester.

Ciaron will be taking part in the U18s Inter-Regional Tournament which is being held in Sheffield in early February. Here, Ciaron will be playing for Swim North West. After this tournament, Ciaron will be heading to Barcelona with the Great Britain U17s Water Polo squad for training camp. This camp has been made possible thanks to the Trafford Athlete Fund.

We wish Ciaron and the team all the best with the upcoming competitions, and cannot wait to hear about the results!