12 things you need to know about Water Polo

1. THE Water Polo Arena next door to the Aquatics Centre at the Olympic Park will hold the event between Sunday, July 29 and Sunday, August 12.

2. TWO medal events will be contested — the men’s and women’s team competitions featuring a total of 260 players.

3. A DOZEN teams will be in the men’s event, with eight in the women’s. Group matches will be followed by a knockout stage.

4. WATER POLO is a seven-a-side game with rolling subs played over four periods of eight minutes each. The aim is to score in a floating goal similar in size to those used in five-a-side football.

5. EXTRA-TIME and penalties are played to decide tied matches when necessary.

6. AS in basketball there is a shot clock. Teams must shoot within 30 seconds of getting the ball.

7. ALSO like basketball, the clock stops and restarts during play which means matches of 32 minutes actually last for more than an hour.

8. THE game is a contact sport and the rules are pretty liberal although, in theory, contact is only allowed when a player has the ball and no punching is allowed.

9. FOULS can be punished with 20-second sin-binnings and expulsions if they are deemed serious enough.

10. TEAM GB will be outsiders going into the Games but actually won four of the first five Olympic tournaments.

11. MEN’S water polo was first played at the Olympics in 1900 but a women’s competition was only introduced in 2000.

12. THE original version of the sport featured players floating on barrels and hitting the ball with mallets — hence the word polo in the name.