Courtesy: FINA
Eight water polo squads representing the five continents are set to dispute the FINA Men’s Water Polo World Cup 2018 title in Berlin, Germany from Tuesday September 11 to Sunday September 16.
Elite national teams from Australia, Croatia, Germany, Hungary, Japan, Serbia, South Africa and the USA will be continuing the testing of new rules proposed by the FINA TWPC at the FINA World Water Polo Conference in Budapest in April 2018 which will then be presented for approval in Hangzhou, China, on December 10. See proposed rule changes here.
The 16th FINA Men’s Water Polo World Cup is coming back to Berlin after 29 years, when the city hosted the 1989 edition. The upcoming competition will be the first big water polo tournament held in the German capital since the 2006 FINA World League Super Final.
Olympic and World Cup champions Serbia are the players to beat in Berlin, while World champions Croatia and World Championships silver medallists Hungary are other strong contenders.
The groups’ composition for the tournament is as follows:
The final ranking of the 2014 World Cup was:
1. Serbia, 2. Hungary, 3. Croatia, 4. USA, 5. Australia, 6. Kazakhstan; 7. Montenegro; 8. South Africa
Medalists of all the FINA Men’s World Cups:
1979: 1. HUN, 2. USA, 3. YUG
1981: 1. URS, 2. YUG, 3. CUB
1983: 1. URS, 2. FRG, 3. ITA
1985: 1. FRG, 2. USA, 3. ESP
1987: 1. YUG, 2. URS, 3. FRG
1989: 1. YUG, 2. ITA, 3. HUN
1991: 1. USA, 2. YUG, 3. ESP
1993: 1. ITA, 2. HUN, 3.AUS
1995: 1. HUN, 2. ITA, 3. RUS
1997: 1. USA, 2. GRE, 3. HUN
1999: 1. HUN, 2. ITA, 3. ESP
2002: 1. RUS, 2. HUN, 3. YUG
2006: 1. SCG, 2. HUN, 3. ESP
2010: 1. SRB, 2. CRO, 3. ESP
The competition venue in the German capital is an indoor aquatic complex, the Schwimm- und Sprunghalle im Europasportpark (SSE), including a 50 x 25m pool and a 50 x25 m warm-up pool. The pool will be divided in order to provide two fields of play (each 25 x 25m) with four goals in total for both warming up and training sessions.
Daily detailed game reports and the results will be available on FINA website. All games will be live streamed on FINAtv.
The FINA Women’s Water Polo World Cup 2018 concluded on Sunday September 9 as the USA claimed their third consecutive victory.
USA men have only medaled 4 times and not since 1997. Meanwhile the women are consistently competitive if not dominant. Something doesnt add up on the men’s side.