Atlètic-Barceloneta is the champion of the men’s water polo Division of Honor. It doesn’t matter when they read this statement. From 2006 to 2023 the same applies, because the sailor team has repeated a title for the 18th consecutive year that dominates with an iron fist with Barcelona does the same in handball or CN Sabadell in girls until the irruption of CN Mataró. On this occasion, Elvis Fatovic’s men beat Sabadell masculine himself 2-0, a seen and unseen in a regular competition that had ended with those from Vallès ahead of the Barcelonans.
The second game was resolved without excessive emotion, although CN Sabadell was competitive and stood up to the sailors, who have a team full of internationals, the base of the National Team. In the first meeting, in Can Llong, they already won 4-9 with a great defense, especially from his guard Unai Aguirre. In the second game the score was 13-8, with a great attacking performance from the whole team.
This title reinforces a Barceloneta team that started the league with more doubts after a summer full of competitions for its players. To the World Cup in Budapest in June, where Spain was champion, to the World League in July (it was third) through the European Championship in Belgrade, where again they scratched metal when hanging the bronze. A defeat against CN Sabadell ended a streak of 119 games in a row without losing. But Fatovic’s men recovered and gained competitiveness mainly by playing during the week in the Champions League.
It is now that competition that they have between eyebrows. On the 24th, at home, they face the Georgian Dinamo Tibilisi in the last match of the group stage and the following week they will travel to Belgrade to play the final eight from May 31 to June 3. Fatovic’s men, who will finish first in the group and won, for example, in the difficult Pro Recco pool, will fight to lift the second Champions League. They have grown and have options to bring it back to Barcelona.