Water Polo in Khanty-Mansiysk

     The second day of the Junior Women’s Water Polo World Championship-2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk has come to an end.

     Group tournaments of the Junior Women’s Water Polo World Championship-2009 in Khanty-Mansiysk are finished. Tomorrow the play-off stage starts.

     The result of the tense struggle Canada-Greece, which could ensure the first position in group «A» and a place in quarterfinal, was know on the last seconds of the match. 16 seconds before the siren, when the score was 5:4 in the Canadian team favour, after a throw of the Canadian Breda Vosters the ball fell vertically downwards from a horizontal bar, and arbitrator Stankevich from the USA took it as a goal and that caused a hot protest of the head coach of the Greek team Konstantinos PETRAKIS. During the rest of time the Greek women again reduced gap to minimum, but they didn’t have time to do anything else.

     In a final meeting of the preliminary tournament in group "B" the national team of Australia had an easy victory over the national team of Kazakhstan. The Kazakh water polo player Gauhar Sulemenova started to score, but achievements of her team in today's match came to nothing more than this. In an intense match Italy-Spain which winner took the second place in group, the team from the Apennines tilted the balance in its favour only in the last period. Annai Espar from the Spanish team had an excellent match who successfully took the lead during the most responsible moments of the game. However three goals in a row, thrown by the Italians Elena Maggi, Francesca Pomeri and Elisa Queirolo in the middle of the final quarter, turned an outcome of the game in favour of Italy.

     Hungarian national team handled easily with a team of Uzbekistan, setting a record performance of the tournament and won first place in Group 'C'. After this meeting, namely the athletes of Hungary are on top of the list of scorers of the championship: the account of Hanna Kisteleki 14 balls, with Rita Kesztelyi - 13. The team of South Africa started the score at this game and throughout the first half of the meeting provided stubborn resistance to a superior in the class competitor. Their goalkeeper Rebecca Thomas played well those moments. However, omitting a few balls in a row in the third period, the South African players flung up the white flag and stopped the resistance.

     In group «D» the Russian national team won Brazil with confidence in the last match of the preliminary stage of the World Championship, though the game was not so easy for the hostess team. In spite of the difference in class of the teams and in score, it was a tense struggle with a lot of foul play and sending off. The Russian Olga Belova, having scored 13 balls, became one of the top scorers of the game. The Holland’s national team in the match against the USA looked a little bit tired after yesterday's match with the Russian team, ended late last night. The crucial moments of the game were two goals in a row, thrown by the U.S. A. player Annika Drayers at the beginning of the third period. After that the score became 8:4 in favor of the American team, and the doubts about the final victory of Kyle Utsumi’s trainees dissipated.

     Konstantinos PETRAKIS, the head coach of the Greek national team: - Our girls had a good match today – especially concerning the defense game. I think that there was no goal 16 seconds before the end of the game. However the judge is always right and we have to agree with his decision.

     Damani NISHANT, the head coach of the Canadian team: - We were sure in victory, and we managed to get it – though it was a hard fight. The Greek national team turned out to be a worthy adversary. We had two days off during the tournament – one because the Mexican team didn’t come, the other – owing to today’s victory. I hope, it will help us to prepare better for the main matches.

     Peter SZILAGYI, the head coach of the Australian national team: - When you see the score, it’s clear that today’s game is not too serious. I was bored a little today, but we can pay our respects to the Kazakh team, which came to fight in spite of everything.

     Larisa OLKHINA, the head coach of the national team of Kazakhstan: - All three teams, which got to the preliminary group with us, are the challengers for victory in this tournament. My girls have been going in for water polo only for three years, that’s only their second appearance on the international tournament.

     Claudio CAMARENA, the head coach of the Spanish national team: - Today our girls unfortunately made too many mistakes. We’ll try to correct them in tomorrow’s match against Germany, which is practically equal in strength with us.

     Fabio CONTI, the head coach of the Italian national team: - We aimed to take the first place in group, that was why today’s game was not so important for us. Probably this is the reason why I was calm during the match. But that is unusual condition for me – usually I am more emotional.

     Zsofia BOGROGI, the Hungarian national team player: - Of course we are happy that the victories are given so easily, but the training process is longer than we wanted.

     Anastasiya SKOVPINA, head coach of Uzbekistan: - We are optimistic about the future and learn to play with the strongest teams in the world. Our young girls, knowing that the audience is watching at them, tempered psychologically.

     Bickley FRAZER, head coach of New Zealand: - Not all our plans for this game come true. There were mistakes due to accumulated fatigue by the third day of the game. We’ll try to get a good sleep tonight to be ready to play-off matches.

     Ryan WEIDERMAN, head coach of South Africa: - Today's game has not been very successful. Our girls are a little bit tired after a few games with the strong opponents, and today’s game has passed at a fast pace.

     Kyle UTSUMI, head coach of the USA: - My athletes today have acquitted all expectations. They were very focused throughout the match. It was very important for us to win the game after the defeat that we suffered in a meeting with the team of Russia.

     Ilse SINDORF, head coach of the Netherlands: - The game was quiet, not aggressive. I think that our team had a good game, just didn’t succeed.

     Mikhail NAKORYAKOV, the head coach of the Russian national team: - In our group three teams were considerably higher in level than the Brazilian national team. Unfortunately, Brazil played too crudely in today’s meeting. I would like to mention that the atmosphere on the stands and the attention to water polo in Khanty-Mansiysk is great these days.

     Frank DIAZ, the head coach of the Brazilian national team: - From the very beginning we knew, that it would be a hard game, which we would hardly win. I tried to make girls summon their strength and play worthy. But I didn’t think that the gap in score would be so big.







     Group «А»
     CANADA - GREECE - 6:5 (2:2, 2:0, 0:1, 2:2)

     Group «В»
     AUSTRALIA – KAZAKHSTAN - 28:4 (7:2, 8:0, 5:2, 8:0)

     ITALY – SPAIN - 7:6 (1:1, 1:1, 2:2, 3:2)

     Group «С»
     UZBEKISTAN – HUNGARY - 3:36 (0:11, 0:5, 2:11, 1:9)

     NEW ZEALAND - RSA - 15:1 (2:1, 1:0, 6:0, 6:0)

     Group «D»
     USA – NETHERLANDS - 10:4 (4:2, 2:2, 4:0, 0:0)

     BRAZIL – RUSSIA - 3:32 (1:8, 0:9, 1:6, 1:9)