Kayes Olympic water polo dream back on track

NSWIS water polo player Joe Kayes is now eligible to compete for Australia at the 2016 Rio Olympics following a final approval from the sport’s international governing body, FINA, this week.

Kayes became an Australian citizen and a member of NSWIS last year and had been sweating on the final announcement ahead of the Aussie Sharks’, last preparations for Rio.

The hulking former Kiwi played in Australia’s National Water Polo League in Perth before spending four seasons playing professionally for Szeged in the Hungarian league.  

During that time Kayes’ Olympic aspirations and close ties with Australia saw him seek citizenship and last year he moved to NSWIS and the Cronulla Sharks. 

Whilst Kayes trained with the Australian senior squad and played some non-official FINA internationals he was unable to gain a full FINA clearance until now, continuing to train diligently under NSWIS head coach Chris Wybrow.

“It’s a big relief to have it resolved, I can now focus on the task at hand and that’s giving myself the best opportunity to be considered for selection for Rio,” Kayes said.

“I took as risk at this stage in my career, to give up the professional league in Europe and focus on Olympic selection for Australia. I’m just excited to be able to get out there and play with the boys – you can already feel the excitement is building the closer we get (to Rio).”

Kayes’ eligibility is a major boost for the Aussie Sharks and the NSWIS program with the centre forward considered one of the world’s best in his position and while Australian head coach Elvis Fatovic stopped short of naming Kayes as a Rio certainty the hulking former Kiwi is well on track.

“For us it will be very helpful to have two quality centre forwards but he (Joe) will need some time to adapt to our style of the game,” Fatovic said.

“What we need now is to get Joe experience playing with the team in the tough games.  It is helpful that we have two test matches coming up against the USA and hopefully we will have more to come leading into Rio.”

The Australian Men’s Water Polo squad are in camp in Sydney ahead of their next overseas tour in preparation for Rio, which will take them to Japan and USA.