Stingers Impress with Victory over Russia

The Aussie Stingers have delivered their second straight win at the FINA World Championships in Budapest, after securing a solid 8-5 victory over Russia.

The new look Stingers outfit claimed its biggest scalp to date under new coach Sakis Kechagias in defeating the 2016 Rio Olympic bronze medallists.

Olympian Hannah Buckling said she was pleased the Aussie Stingers could keep the momentum going for their 2017 World Championships campaign.

“We were three all at the end of the first half and I think with Russia the thing you need to cut down is their counter attack and I think we did really well doing that,” said Buckling.

“We had good patience in our six on six attack and from there our attack came from our defence as well.

“It was a tough slog. It was a really long game but we held in there, we were patient and we didn’t make silly makes to allow us to come away with the win,” she said.

From the outset the game was set up to be a tightly fought contest and with scores locked 3-3 at half time it appeared the match would go to the wire. The Aussies made their mark in the second half, taking an early lead to establish a two goal break at the end of third quarter.

Russia were not going down without a fight, getting the first goal of the final quarter to put them within striking distance of the Aussies.Isobel Bishop however, stepped up with a lovely back-hand to take back the two goal lead.It was quickly followed up with a goal from Keesja Gofers to set-up a match-winning three-goal advantage.

The stage is now set for the final preliminary round where Australia will face Greece in one of the most highly anticipated match-ups of the Tournament. The match against Greece will take place on July 21 at 4:50pm (Perth time).

– with WaterPoloAus