TWO Darlington teenagers have been making a splash on the international water polo stage.
Emily Pilkington, 15 and Richard Murray, 14 of Hummersknott Academy recently represented the North East in a water polo competition in Andorra.
Richard plays for the Sedgefield team, whilst Emily is a regular in the Leeds team playing in the national ladies’ premier league.
Both youngsters train regularly with the North East squad and Emily was delighted last year to score the winning goal in the final seconds of the last match to clinch the national championship for the North East girls, breaking the North West’s tenure of several years.
Emily has also been a member of the GB squad for the past three years, playing in an age group a year above her actual age.
She is hoping to be selected to represent GB at the 2015 European games in Baku Azerbaijan.
In the recent tournament in Andorra, the North East team was the only one from Great Britain, but there were several teams from Spain and Italy.
Both Richard and Emily, who swim regularly in the Hummersknott pool in addition to their specialist training, are looking forward to having the opportunity of representing the region and country in future competitive matches.
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