FINA World Championships 2013: World League champion China rumbled by Australia

POLO AIR INDONESIA-As Olympic bronze medallist it might be said that Australia would never cause an upset, but this is what transpired in day-two action at the FINA Women’s Water Polo World Championships at the Bernat Picornell Pool.

Australia came back from 5-4 down to thrash recently crowned FINA World League champion China 14-5 in what was a display of pressure defence, power shooting and general aggression.

The all-round effort made everyone sit up while a dejected China, a day-one winner over South Africa, will now shoot for second spot in Group B. Australia now needs to defeat South Africa, who lost to New Zealand 14-7 in the day’s first match, to win the group.

In Group A action in the evening, Netherlands posted a world record 30-3 win over Uzbekistan, who were also part of the previous record. Host Spain, the Olympic silver medallist, fell to Russia 7-6 who have two wins in what is one of the toughest two groups.

In Group C, star centre forward Alexandra Asimaki steered Greece to a 13-7 victory over Great Britain, scoring five goals. The United States of America gained a second win with a 10-8 win over neighbour Canada despite allowing Canada to score five of the last six goals.

In Group D, Kazakhstan gained a first win, defeating Brazil 9-5. Hungary then made progression in the tournament harder for Italy with a 10-4 margin. Rita Keszthelyi added four more goals to her five from the opening day and Barbara Bujka scored four for a total of seven.

Points after day two:

Group A: RUS 4, ESP 2, NED 2, UZB 0.
Group B: AUS 4, CHN 2, NZL 2, RSA 0.
Group C: USA 4, CAN 2, GRE 2, GBR 0.
Group D: HUN 4, KAZ 2, ITA 2, BRA 0.

MEDALS TABLE

NF	GOLD	SILVER	BRONZE	TOTAL
CHN	5	2	2	9
RUS	3	2	-	5
BRA	1	2	1	4
GER	1	1	2	4
TUN	1	-	1	2
GRE	1	-	-	1
USA	1	-	-	1
CAN	-	2	1	3
ITA	-	2	-	2
ESP	-	1	2	3
UKR	-	1	1	2
MEX	-	-	2	2
MAS	-	-	1	1
TOTAL	13	13	13	39