Canoe Polo World Championships 2026 results: Italy and Germany crowned in Duisburg
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- 2026-09-20T19:52:21+00:00
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- PaddleStats
Full competition results: ICF Canoe Polo World Championships - Duisburg
European teams claimed all four world titles at the 2026 Canoe Polo World Championships in Duisburg. Italy beat Germany 4–3 after extra time in the men’s final, ending the hosts’ run of three consecutive titles. Poland also saw their tournament end in extra time, losing the women’s bronze-medal match 4–3 to Great Britain and finishing fourth.
Four titles, four different nations
The World Championships in Duisburg featured 357 matches over six days. Seventy-six teams from 27 nations took part, scoring 2,654 goals between them. Each of the four titles went to a different country.
| Category | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
|---|---|---|---|
| Men | Italy | Germany | France |
| Women | Germany | France | Great Britain |
| U21 Men | France | New Zealand | Germany |
| U21 Women | Spain | New Zealand | Germany |
Germany won more medals than any other nation — four, including one gold. Their women won the title, the men took silver and both U21 teams finished with bronze. France collected medals in three categories: U21 men’s gold, women’s silver and men’s bronze. New Zealand lost both U21 finals and left Duisburg with two silver medals. Italy and Spain each won a single medal, but both were gold.
| Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Germany | 1 | 1 | 2 | 4 |
| France | 1 | 1 | 1 | 3 |
| Italy | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| Spain | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| New Zealand | 0 | 2 | 0 | 2 |
| Great Britain | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
European teams filled every podium place in both senior competitions. New Zealand broke that pattern at U21 level, taking silver in both the men’s and women’s events. It was the only non-European nation to reach a final in any category.
Extra time decided three of the eight medal matches
Germany and Italy met twice in Duisburg. The hosts won their second-round group match 5–3, handing Italy their only defeat of the tournament.
Italy took revenge in the final. The teams were level after 20 minutes of regulation time before the Italians scored the winner in extra time to make it 4–3. It was Italy’s second men’s world title, ten years after their triumph in Syracuse in 2016.
The defeat ended Germany’s reign as world champions. They had held the title since 2018, successfully defending it in 2022 and at the 2024 Championships in Deqing. Germany reached the Duisburg final unbeaten, having scored 54 goals and conceded 16. In the semi-final they beat France 4–3 after extra time. France recovered to win bronze, defeating Great Britain 5–4 in another extra-time match.
Nine of the 33 matches on the final day required extra time. They included the men’s final, both bronze-medal matches and games for fifth, seventh, seventeenth and twenty-first place. Six of those nine matches were decided by a single goal.
The women’s competition was far less dramatic. Germany won all ten of their matches, scoring 79 goals and conceding just eight, before beating France 8–1 in the final. Italy came closest to stopping them, losing only 1–0 in the second group round. Germany reclaimed the title after missing the podium entirely in Deqing, where New Zealand finished ahead of Italy and the Netherlands.
Spain’s U21 women also completed a perfect ten-win campaign. They scored 78 goals, conceded 12 and beat New Zealand 3–1 in the final. Spain had already defeated the same opponents by the same score in the second group round. They also beat Germany 8–4 on their way to the title; the Germans went on to claim bronze.
France beat New Zealand 7–2 in the U21 men’s final. Their path to the title was not flawless, however: they drew 2–2 with Great Britain and lost 5–2 to the Netherlands in the group stage. The Dutch later played for bronze but were beaten 2–1 by Germany.
Poland finish one goal short of a first senior medal
Poland’s women came within one match of winning the country’s first senior World Championship medal. They were beaten 4–3 by Great Britain after extra time in the bronze-medal game, having lost their semi-final 4–1 to France a few hours earlier.
Poland finished the tournament with five wins and five defeats, scoring 40 goals and conceding 35. In the first group round they beat Italy 4–3, Malaysia 9–1 and Sweden 4–2. Italy eventually finished seventh. In the second round Poland defeated Singapore 8–4 and Chinese Taipei 6–2, but lost 8–0 to Germany and 5–4 to Spain. Germany went on to win the title, while Spain finished sixth.
Dominika Sojka scored fourteen goals, the third-highest total in the senior women’s competition. Hanna Sojka added nine and Marta Migdalska eight. Poland conceded the most goals in their matches against Germany and France, the two teams that eventually contested the final.
Poland’s three squads drew their players from four clubs: Powiśle Warszawa, Team Poznań, SET Kaniów and MOSW Choszczno. Two weeks before Duisburg, those same clubs had competed for the Polish national titles in Kaniów.
Poland’s U21 men finished fifth, one place higher than two years earlier in Deqing. They secured the position by beating Switzerland 4–3. Earlier in the tournament they defeated Belgium 6–5 and Italy 6–3, and drew 5–5 with Spain. Their three defeats in the second group round came against the eventual medallists: 5–3 to France, 5–3 to New Zealand and 7–2 to Germany. Leon Bielecki scored twelve goals, while Mateusz Książek and Olaf Nowicki added eight each.
The senior men endured the most difficult campaign of the three Polish teams. They beat Singapore 6–1 and the United States 9–0 in the first group round, then defeated Portugal 6–2 in the second. Four consecutive defeats followed: 3–2 to Germany, 6–2 to Italy, 5–1 to New Zealand and 7–3 to Switzerland. Poland then lost the ninth-place match 5–2 to Spain and finished tenth, three places below their result in Deqing. Jan Bulira led the team with ten goals.
The tournament in numbers: 7.4 goals per match and no early exits
Canoe polo is played by two teams of five on a 35 × 23 metre pitch, with the goals suspended two metres above the water. Matches in Duisburg consisted of two ten-minute halves and produced an average of 7.4 goals.
The World Championship format does not eliminate teams from the tournament. After the opening group stage, teams move into further groups that lead either to the semi-finals or to classification matches. Every side therefore continues playing for a final position. The men’s competition featured 24 teams, the women’s 18, the U21 men’s 20 and the U21 women’s 14.
The teams immediately below the podium were Great Britain, Switzerland, New Zealand and the Netherlands in the men’s competition; Poland, the Netherlands, Spain and Italy in the women’s; the Netherlands, Poland, Switzerland and Spain in the U21 men’s; and France, Italy, the Netherlands and Great Britain in the U21 women’s. In the men’s tournament, positions from fifteenth to twenty-fourth were also decided through dedicated classification matches.
Matches were played simultaneously across four pitches. The busiest day was Friday 18 September, with 80 games. The final Sunday was the quietest, with 33 matches devoted entirely to determining final positions.
The largest winning margins came during the opening days. Great Britain’s women beat the United States 21–0, Germany’s U21 women defeated South Africa 20–0 and Spain’s U21 women won 19–0 against Canada. By comparison, the 33 matches on the final day produced 224 goals, while Wednesday’s 78 games produced 586.
Two nations combined medals with strong finishes across all four categories. Great Britain won bronze in the women’s competition, while their men lost the third-place match 5–4 to France and finished fourth. Their U21 women placed seventh and their U21 men ninth. In addition to their two U21 silver medals, New Zealand finished sixth in the men’s event after losing the fifth-place match 3–2 to Switzerland, and eleventh in the women’s competition.
The Duisburg tournament was larger than the previous edition. Deqing featured 338 matches and 2,565 goals — 89 fewer than in Germany. Twenty-seven referees from 16 nations officiated in Duisburg. The largest contingents came from Singapore, New Zealand and Great Britain, with three referees each.
In the smallest competition, the U21 women’s event, places nine to fourteen were decided in a separate group. Switzerland and Belgium led it with nine points from three matches. Their goal tallies were 15–2 and 13–6 respectively.
Lithuania’s Karolis Latauskas finished as the tournament’s leading scorer with 27 goals in ten matches. Lithuania scored 55 goals in total and placed fifteenth. Belgium’s Willem Baeten was second in the scoring standings with 21 goals, followed by Sweden’s Erik Malmborg with 16.
Nina Hachenburg led the senior women’s competition with 25 goals and finished the tournament with a gold medal. Denmark’s Caspar Frej Mortensen Polczynski was the U21 men’s leading scorer with 23. Two Spanish players shared top spot among the U21 women: Clara Ferreira and Valentina Nogueira Lovatto scored 19 goals each.
What comes next: Vejen 2028
The Canoe Polo World Championships are held every two years, with the next edition scheduled for Vejen, Denmark, in 2028. Denmark finished eighth in the senior men’s competition in Duisburg. Their U21 men placed seventh after losing the deciding match 4–3 to Spain, but Caspar Frej Mortensen Polczynski ended the tournament as the category’s leading scorer.
Poland travelled to Duisburg hoping to win a first World Championship medal. The senior women came closest, losing two important matches by a single goal: 5–4 to Spain in the second group round and 4–3 to Great Britain after extra time in the bronze-medal game. Before the tournament, we examined who could realistically win in Duisburg. Three of the eight medal matches required extra time, while another two were decided by one goal.
Frequently asked questions
Who won the 2026 Canoe Polo World Championships?
Italy won the men’s title by beating Germany 4–3 after extra time. Germany claimed the women’s crown with an 8–1 victory over France. France won the U21 men’s competition and Spain the U21 women’s.
Where did Poland finish at the 2026 Canoe Polo World Championships?
The women finished fourth, the U21 men fifth and the senior men tenth. Poland did not enter a team in the U21 women’s competition.
Did Poland win a medal in Duisburg?
No. The women lost the bronze-medal match 4–3 to Great Britain after extra time.
Where and when were the championships held?
In Duisburg, Germany, from 15 to 20 September 2026. A total of 357 matches were played across four pitches.
Who was the leading scorer?
Lithuania’s Karolis Latauskas, with 27 goals in ten matches. Germany’s Nina Hachenburg led the senior women’s competition with 25.
Did Germany underachieve as hosts?
They won more medals than any other nation, but only one was gold. Germany lost the men’s title they had held since 2018 after extra time in the final, while both U21 teams were beaten in the semi-finals and finished with bronze.
Can Poland win a medal in Vejen in 2028?
Their results in Duisburg suggest it is a realistic target. Poland’s women finished fourth, lost two important matches by a single goal and had the third-highest scorer in the senior women’s competition: Dominika Sojka with fourteen goals.
How does extra time work in canoe polo?
A match consists of two ten-minute halves. Classification matches cannot end in a draw, so level scores after regulation lead to extra time. Nine of the 33 matches on the final day in Duisburg were decided that way.
Germany will travel to Vejen without the men’s title for the first time in eight years. Only two teams completed the Duisburg tournament unbeaten — Germany’s women and Spain’s U21 women — and both won gold. Poland’s women finished one goal short of a first senior medal. Full results from all 357 matches are available on the Duisburg World Championships page, with the 2024 edition in Deqing providing a useful comparison.