Courtesy: FINA
Serbia clinched the junior’s crown in Prague (CZE) tonight as the squad defeated Italy 10-8 in the gold match of the 21st edition of the FINA World Men’s Junior Water Polo Championships, which took place over nine days from August 28-September 5.
Serbia and Italy battled it out tonight in the first two quarters (3-3, 1-1) but Serbia ended up upsetting the Italians in the third and final quarters (3-2, 3-2) to finally bag the Junior title, adding to their tally a seventh consecutive medal stretching back to 2009, including golds in 2011 and 2015.
Italy, who won its last gold medal in 2013 and claimed bronze in 2019, takes a well-deserved silver medal home.
Montenegro clinched the bronze medal at stake today, beating the Hungarians 12-11 after penalty shootout (2-1, 2-2, 1-3, 3-2), a significant improvement for the Balkan squad since its sixth position in 2019.
The Greeks, winners of the 2019 Junior World Championships, rank eighth after losing 9-11 to Hungary in the Quarter Final on Friday.
Detailed results available on FINA website here & daily recaps are available in the news section here.
Final ranking in Prague
- 2. 3. Montenegro; 4. Hungary; 5. Croatia; 6. Spain; 7. USA; 8. Greece; 9. Germany; 10 Brazil; 11. Russia; 12. South Africa; 13. Argentina; 14. Kazakhstan; 15. Slovakia; 16. Egypt; 17. Czech Republic; 18. Uzbekistan
Team USA finishes 7th behind the traditional European WP powers. Yet every year there’s the same topic surfacing about the influx of “foreign water polo players taking scholarships from deserving Americans” Talent is where you find it and if you’re an American college WP coach you’re judged on how your record and that means importing talent when local USA talent is not there.