Beadsworth Makes Dream Olympic Debut

Western Australian water polo star, Gemma Beadsworth produced a world class performance as Australia opened their Olympic campaign with an 8-6 win over Greece in China yesterday.

Beadsworth struck three times in the first quarter to give Australia the early advantage, she would finish with four goals and the praise of Australian Coach Greg McFadden.

“Gemma’s one of the best young players in the world and is graduating to being one of the best senior players,” said McFadden.

“For her first game at the Olympics, she started fantasic. After that the Greeks paid a lot more attention to her but she still got in there, got four goals in total and earned some valuable kickouts.

“In the end she turned out to be the difference. She was virtually the best player at the last junior world championships and has got huge potential. The opposition have to worry about all our other players which gives her a little bit more freedom to throw the goals for us.”

Australia didn’t have the match all their own way however, at 7-3 Greece produced a spirited fight back to chip away at the Stingers lead, with Australia indebted to the goalkeeping heroics of Alicia McCormack who pulled off a number of stunning saves to stop the Greek advances.

Australia’s next match is against Hungary on Wednesday August 13.