Seven of the teams taking part in the European preliminaries faced each other on Tuesday February 23 for the fourth round of the Women’s Water Polo World League 2016, held in various cities. Spain and Greece will play their fourth match next week, on Tuesday March 1.
France welcomed Group A‘s leader, the Netherlands, in Lille and the Dutch crushed the French 12-8 (4-3, 3-2, 2-2, 3-1). Hungary visited the Italians at home, in Nivara, and were defeated 7-10 despite coming back strong in the last quarter (2-5, 3-4, 0-1, 2-0).
In Group B, Germany and Russia only played last night. The Russians triumphed 22-10 in Hamburg, giving no chance to the German team (5-2, 7-2, 5-4, 5-2).
Provisional rankings:
GROUP A: NED 12 pts (4W), ITA 7 pts (2W, 2L), HUN 5 (2W, 2L), FRA 0 (4L)
GROUP B: RUS 9 pts (3W, 1L), ESP 8 pts (3W)*, GRE 4 (1W, 3L)*, GER 0 (4L)
*the two teams will play their round 4 game on Tuesday March 1.
The fifth round of the women’s European preliminaries will take place on April 12, 2016. In parallel, the Women’sIntercontinental Tournament came to an end on Sunday February 21 in Lewisville, Texas (USA). USA won the gold medal, while Australia took Silver and China bronze.
The USA, Australia, Canada and Brazil qualified for the Super Final to be held in Shanghai (CHN) from June 7-12. China was automatically qualified as the host nation of the tournament, leaving Japan the only team not making it to Shanghai.
Swimming news courtesy of FINA.