WATER POLO: The Australian Men’s Water Polo team have maintained their winning form with a 10-3 win over Kazakhstan in day three of the FINA World League Intercontinental Tournament.
Now at the half way point, the tournament is getting to the crucial point for many of the world’s top water polo nations, with spots in the FINA World League Super Final in June, up for grabs.
Last night the Aussies led throughout, but at half time with the score line of 4-2 the hosts looked to have a tough battle on their hands if they were going to secure their third consecutive win.
Rio Olympians Joe Kayes and Jarrod Gilchrist led their young side from in front with solid goals for the home side.
For Gilchrist he said the side were happy to start the tournament with three wins, but they haven’t loss sight of the two big games to come.
“I’m really happy with how we played, we worked really hard in our extra man defence in particular,” said Gilchrist.
“We watched some video of their (Kazakhstan) first two performances, but coming into the tournament they were a bit unknown, but that’s part of world water polo you’ve just got to play against who ever comes up at each tournament,” he said.
The Australians now trail USA by one point, with both sides three from three games. The two sides will meet tonight in what is tipped to be a preview of Sunday’s gold medal game.
“It’s always a tough tussle with the USA. There are a few guys we know there well, we have done some training with them in the last week as well so we should be prepared for them.
“I think we will be able to go well against them and hopefully we can walk away with the win,” said Gilchrist.
The action continues today at Gold Coast Aquatic Centre with New Zealand verse Kazakhstan (3:30pm), Japan verse China (4:40pm) and Australia taking on USA (6:10pm).
The finals will be played on Sunday 30 April, with the gold medal match to be played at 12:10pm.
AUS V KAZ RESULTS
GOLD COAST: FINA World League Intercontinental Tournament; AUS 10 PAVILLARD, Luke (2); KAYES, Joe (C) (2) FORD, Andrew (1) GILCHRIST, Jarrod (3) FANNON, James (1) HOLLIS, Lachlan (1) KAZ 3 MEDVEDEV, Yevgenly (1) PILIPENKO, Roman (1) SHAKENOV, Murat (1)
Water Polo Australia
