30 water polo teams ready to make waves at FINA World Leagues 2013

POLO AIR INDONESIA. The 2013 edition of the Men's and Women's FINA Water Polo World Leagues promises to be exciting with 30 teams (17 men's and 13 women's) competing for top honours.

The European preliminaries for the women's competition kick off this month with the first and second round of games on January 23 and 26, respectively. On January 23,

Spain will receive Hungary in Mataro and the Netherlands will face Italy in Alphen aan den Rijn. On January 26, Hungary will play against Greece at home in Eger and the Russians will pit their strength against the Italians in Cetania.

The next third and fourth rounds of prelims are scheduled in February and the fifth and sixth ones take place in March. The two highest-ranked teams from the Americas and Asia/Oceania tournaments and four best European teams will earn a ticket for the women's Super Final to be held in Beijing, China from June 3-8, 2013.

Olympic champion Team USA, which obtained its seventh successive World League title last year, is definitely the team to beat. Australia and Greece ranked second and third, respectively, in 2012.

The European preliminaries for the men's World League, whose first and second rounds took place last October, will resume on January 29 with Italy and Romania facing each other in Civitavecchia in the third round of matches. Four more games will take place on the 30th between Greece and Croatia (Athens), Turkey and Montenegro (Istanbul), Germany and Spain (Stuttgart) and Russia and Hungary (Volograde City).

So far, Montenegro tops Group A, which includes Greece, Croatia and Turkey. Serbia is the leader of Group B, ahead of Spain and Germany while Hungary occupies the top spot in Group C, which comprises Italy, Romania and Russia.

The battle is not over yet with more big games coming up in February (fourth round) and March (fifth and last round). The city to host the men's Super Final is to be announced; the dates are June 11-16, 2013. Two months before capturing the Olympic crown in London last August, Croatia won its first World League title. Spain and Italy completed the podium.