The fourth European round of the Men’s Water Polo World League 2016, held in various places on Tuesday February 16, confirmed Greece, Serbia and Italy respective dominance of Group A, B and C.
Win four wins each, the three teams total 12 points.
Group A’s Georgia received the Hungarians, who won 20-10, in Tbilisi, while Romania faced World bronze medallist Greece in Bucharest (ROU) and lost 6-9 (1-3, 2-3, 3-2, 0-1).
In Group B, current World champions Serbia played France in Strasbourg and ended up triumphing 15-10 (2-3, 3-4, 6-0, 4-3). Still in Group B, the Spanish team met Montenegro in Sabadell (ESP) and scored 10 goals, despite a tight start, while Montenegro scored 8 times (3-3, 2-2, 4-1, 1-2).
Reigning Olympic champions Croatia beat Turkey 16-3 in Ankara, giving no chance to the host in the second and third quarters (2-1, 3-0, 6-0, 5-2), while Italy received the Russians in Turin and won 14-9 (3-1, 2-1, 4-4, 5-3).
Provisional rankings:
GROUP A: GRE 12pts (4W); HUN 9 (3W, 1L); ROU 3 (1W, 3L); GEO 0 (4L)
GROUP B: SRB 12pts (4W); ESP 6 (2W, 2L); MNE 3 (1W, 2L)*; FRA 0 (3L)*
GROUP C: ITA 12pts (4W); CRO 9 (3W, 1L); RUS 3 (1W, 3L); TUR 0 (4L)
*the two teams didn’t play the second round yet, the match has been postponed to March 14, 2016.
The fifth round of the Men’s European preliminaries will take place on April 26, 2016. In the Women’s League, the third round of European matches will be played on February 23.
The FINA Women’s Water Polo World League Intercontinental Tournament is currently taking place in Lewisville, USA, where four teams (+ host) will secure a sport for the Super Final to take place in Shanghai (CHN) in June. The Men’s Intercontinental Tournament will take place from May 10–15, 2016, in Yokohama (JPN) and the Super Final in June too (city TBC).
Swimming news courtesy of FINA.