Stingers and Sharks Prepare for Busy Schedule
It’s a big couple of weeks for our national water polo teams with the Aussie Stingers and Aussie Sharks playing overseas in the London Test Event and FINA World League Preliminaries in China and Japan.
The action kicks off on May 3, with the Aussie Stingers playing Great Britain in the first of their round robin matches at the London Test Event. Our Aussie girls are coming off a 5-0 whitewash against Great Britain in Canberra in February and will be looking to repeat that form.
The girls will then back up on Friday and Saturday with games against Hungary and arch rivals the USA. The Stingers have lost just one game against the USA in their previous five outings and will be hoping to build upon that record heading into the Olympics.
The Aussie Stingers play Great Britain on Friday morning and will follow that with their clashes against America and Hungary on Saturday.
The bronze medal game will be on Sunday with the gold medal match to be decided later that night.
Also starting today is the FINA World League Preliminaries in Shanghai, China with the Aussie Stingers B team and Aussie Sharks in action.
Due to a schedule clash, Australia has been forced send a ‘B’ squad to the opening preliminary round with Olympic squad members Hannah Buckling, Kelsey Wakefield, Zoe Arancini (WAIS-AIS) and Isobel Bishop set to lead the team.
Joining them will be Australian Junior representatives Bronte Colenso, Olivia King, Maddie Schmid, Emily Benson and Chloe Barr as well Jess Martin, Gabby Wikman, Georgia Clarke and Maddie Coburn.
Their first game is against China, with matches against Japan and the Chinese ‘B’ team on Friday and Saturday.
The Aussie Sharks will kick start their World League campaign at the same tournament with matches against Japan, China and London Olympic qualifiers Kazakhstan.
Kazakhstan defeated Japan and China at the Asian qualifying tournament earlier in the year and will pose the biggest threat to our Sharks. Australia will play China on Thursday, with games against Japan and Kazakhstan on Friday and Saturday.
Their attention will then turn to the second leg of preliminaries in Chiba in Japan. This will be the Sharks last international hit out before heading to the FINA World League in Kazakhstan.
The Aussie Stingers ‘A’ team will also be back in action in Chiba with the girls flying directly from London to Japan. Their games will be on Wednesday May 9 and Thursday May 10.
The Stingers will then stay on Asia for a two week camp, while the men will return to Australia on May 13 before heading back for the World League Finals.
– Water Polo Australia
