WAIS water polo athletes Gemma Beadsworth and Emma Knox were part of the Australian Stingers national squad that claimed bronze in the World League Super finals in Tenerife, Spain.
Australia edged out Canada 7-6 to win their fourth consecutive medal at a major competition with Gemma Beadsworth finding the target twice, to cap off a fine individual tournament.
Canada had proved Australia’s nemesis earlier in the tournament with a defeat that prevented the Stingers from advancing to the gold medal game.
Australia gained its revenge and a timely boost ahead of Beijing with a solid performance, but the win was anything but straight forward. The match see sawed through-out and missed opportunities by both teams saw the score remained locked until Australia’s player of the tournament Gemma Beadsworth scored a lob in extra time with 2.20min remaining.
Canada called a timeout with 14 seconds left but Australia’s defence held firm and the Bronze Medal was secured.
Coach McFadden said “While it was not pretty the team stuck together and got the result we were after. Missed opportunities really put pressure on us and with selections hanging over player’s heads this only added to the pressure”.
“Our defence was solid for most of the game and we should have built a good base for our counter attack around this.”
“There is still lot’s of improvement to come from everyone and hopefully once we settle on our Olympic team players will relax and play to their potential,” he said.
