Women's World League: Europe Prelims Kick Off

POLO AIR INDONESIA-The 10th edition of the Women's Water Polo World League 2013 kicks off today with the first round of preliminaries in Europe. Olympic silver-medallist Spain and Hungary (Group A) will meet at 20:00 hours (local time) in Mataro (ESP) while the Italian and Dutch squads (Group B) will play at 21:00 hours (local time) in Alpen aan den Rijn (NED).

The second round of matches is scheduled for January 26 with Hungary facing World champion Greece (Group A) at home in Eger and the Russians visiting the Italians (Group B) in Cetania.

The European tournament comprises six rounds of home-and-away games, at the end of which the two highest-ranked teams from each group (A and B) will earn a ticket for the Super Final taking place in Beijing, China from June 3-8, 2013.

In May, the Asia/Oceania and Americas tournaments will be held from the 9th-14th in Auckland (NZL) and 24th-27th (city tbc, USA), respectively. The teams in the Asia/Oceania group are Australia, China, Japan and New Zealand while the teams of Brazil, Canada and USA will take part in the World League preliminaries for the Americas.

Olympic champion Team USA won the first World League edition (2004) at home in Long Beach and has since obtained a record eight crowns, seven of them consecutive (from 2006 to 2012).