The Australian Sharks men’s water polo team have been beaten 12-6 by Croatia in their opening match of the FINA World League finals in Florence, Italy.
The Australian squad that includes WAIS athletes Luke Quinlivan, Joel Swift, Tim Cleland and Aaron Younger was unable to match the power and speed of the Croatian team, and were left to rue a disastrous first term..
The skillful Croatian team opened up a 4-0 lead in the opening stanza and even though the Sharks were able to draw the second and third quarters 1-1 and 3-3 respectively the game was already in the bag for the Europeans.
Australia will play Canada early on Thursday morning AEST in a must win game before closing out the round robin stage of the tournament against last year’s runner-up Montenegro on Friday morning.
The FINA World League is this year’s main lead-in tournament to the FINA World Championships that begin on July 17 in Shanghai.
–Water Polo Australia
