RESULTS OF THE FIFTH DAY of the Junior Women's Water Polo World Championship -2009

In Khanty-Mansiysk the matches of the fifth day of the Junior Women's Water Polo World Championship-2009 has come to an end. Tomorrow there will be semifinals.

QUARTERFINALS:

CANADA – NERTHERLANDS - 6:8 (2:1, 1:2, 0:0, 3:3, 0:0, 0:2)

AUSTRALIA – USA - 5:9 (1:5, 2:2, 1:2, 1:0)

HUNGARY – SPAIN - 11:9 (2:1, 2:3, 3:1, 2:4, 2:0, 0:0)

RUSSIA – ITALY – 11:6 (5:0, 1:0, 4:2, 1:4)

In the first quarterfinal of the World championship ( Canada – the Netherlands ) two absolutely equal teams met. During the main time the team managed to lead the score only once (in the second period the Canadian led 3:1). In the rest of the time game went with equal score. Everything was settled in the second period of the overtime when two accurate throws of the Dutch player Amarens Genee let the team get to the semi-final.

The national team of Australia began the match with Americans extremely unsuccessfully, having missed four balls during first six minutes. Already in the first period the head coach of the Australians Peter SZILAGYI changed the goalkeeper and instead of unsuccessfully played Serena Reid and let Kelsey Wakefield play. However it was late already. Having made comfortable gap in the score the national team of the USA confidently led the game to a victory.

For the second time at play-off stage on this tournament (yesterday against the national Greek team and today) the Spanish national team managed to catch up with the shortage in three balls in the final period of the game. However today's "feat" of the Spanish team allowed Claudio Kamarena's players only to lead the game to draw in the basic time of the match. In the overtime after two exact throws of Dora Antal and Rita Keszthelyi the national team of Hungary confidently provided the “road” to the semi-final.

Destiny of the last quarterfinal was almost settled right in the beginning of the match – after the first period the Russians already led the score 5:0. The first ball in this match of the Italian water polo players was netted only in the third quarter, on the 20th minute of the main game time. It was obvious that Fabio Conti's trainees could not «get back to the game» any more after completely ruined beginning of the game.

Andras MERESZ, the head coach of the Hungarian national team: - I am dissatisfied with game of the team. Just looking at the score it is easy to understand that the victory over the Spanish team was very difficult. Now the main thing is to develop the right strategy for the following match.

Ilse Sindorf, head coach of the Netherlands : - We played not so good and we needed two overtimes to prove that we were stronger. Now the mission is to recreate forces before tomorrow's semi-final.

Damani NISHANT , the head coach of the Canadian team: - This was very long and difficult game. During the whole time of the match the teams were very close to each other. We really expected to win medals on this championship. Unfortunately we didn't manage to win them, but in general I am happy with the results of the team this year.

Peter SZILAGYI , the head coach of the Australian national team: - We lost the match in first three minutes, having admitted too many uncorrectable mistakes

Kyle Utsumi , head coach of the USA : - Today we had strong competitor and despite the score we did not feel safe till the last minutes. Before the next matches we intend to correct some mistakes which we have in our game.

Claudio CAMARENA, the head coach of the Spanish national team: - It was a difficult match as we were very tired after yesterday's exhausting game with Greece . We expected to get at least to the semi-final, but, unfortunately, didn't manage with this task.

Fabio CONTI , the head coach of the Italian national team: - We knew that it would be a very difficult match, as the Russian national team is, certainly, one of the tournament strongest teams. It was a strange game as we lost a lot right at the beginning, and then could not make up leeway anymore.

Mikhail Nakoryakov , the head coach of the Russian national team: - We met very strong team which had won the European championship at this age one year ago. And then in a semi-final the Italian team had beaten us. Probably, today in the beginning of the game they were too nervous, and we could take advantage of it. But, once we relaxed slightly the Italian national team proved their power, having reduced score gap …

Matches for the 9-12 places

GREECE – NEW ZEALAND - 8:7 (0:2, 2:1, 1:1, 3:2, 1:1, 1:0)

GERMANY – RSA - 9:3 (1:0, 2:2, 2:0, 4:1)

The Greek national team, as the day before, nearly lost almost won match. 10 seconds before the end of the basic time 14-year-old goalkeeper of the Greek team Chrysoula Diamantopoulou, who was playing well throughout all meeting, made a bad mistake. At the score 6:5, having taken the ball after desperate attack of the New Zealanders, the goalkeeper of the Greek national team simply … gave it to the competitor Johanna Theelen, and she got overtime. However in an extra time higher class of the Greek women affected anyway.

Throughout almost three periods South Africa struggled with the German team on equal terms. However two goals in a row, thrown by the water polo players of Germany Tatjana Steinhauer and Stephanie Motte in the end of the third quarter, appeared to be crucial – after that the score became 5:2, and resistance of the RSA was broken.

Jens REINHARDT , the head coach of Germany : - This victory was hard for us. It was especially hard in the first two periods when the RSA resisted very adequately. This success became the first in the championship for us. We hoped to win the national team of Mexico at the group stage but unfortunately it hadn't come to tournament.

Ryan WEIDERMAN , the head coach of South Africa : - Unfortunately, there is no passion in the game of my little girls. I tried to correct something, but the yesterday's match against the national team of the USA made them really exhausted.

Konstantinos PETRAKIS , the head coach of a national Greek team: - We had two very difficult games before this one. For my girls the today's victory means very a lot as six of them are still very young – 14-15 years only. Therefore it was difficult for them to concentrate on this game after two hard unsuccessful matches. We made many errors today, but our goalkeeper was quite good.

Frazer BICKLEY , the head coach of New Zealand : - I am very disappointed. I think that we gave a huge gift to Greece as actually we had played not worse than competitors.

Match for the 13-14 places

KAZAKHSTAN - BRAZIL - 12:7 (2:0, 3:3, 3:3, 4:1)

Having allowed the competitors to break away in the meeting (0:4), the Brazilian national team started to pursue, where was successful in the end of the third period – 6:6. However this pursuit, probably, was too hard for water polo players from South America and after the score was made even, they missed six balls successively …

Larissa OLKHINA, the head coach of the national team of Kazakhstan : - This game is a turning-point in a life of the girls. We still never won at such level, and this victory is very important for us. It is almost like a gold medal! Though if we were not in such a strong group, we could take a place above 13th.

Frank DIAZ, the head coach of a Brazilian national team: - We began very slowly – probably, excitement affected as this game was important for us. In the second quarter we played already much better, however further admitted too many mistakes. But for us it is quite good result as, in comparison with the previous similar tournament, we have risen on one step above.

BEST SCORERS:

1. Rita Keszthelyi - 17 goals

2-3. Olga BELOVA ( Russia ) - 16 goals

Hanna Kisteleki (Hungary)