Australia spurned Olympic champion Italy’s challenge 10-7 to win the XIV FINA Women’s Water Polo World Cup in Tianjin, China yesterday.

Like the rest of the tournament, Australia was dominant and made it five straight victories, finishing with the crown it has won twice before — 1984 in Irvine, USA and 1995 in front of hometown Sydney supporters.

Australian captain Mel Rippon said the win was a step towards next year's world championships and the Beijing Olympics in 2008.

“A lot of us have trained for a long time and it’s finally happened.

"We had some goals on this (six-week) tour, step by step. We improved every game and there’s still a lot of improving to come before Melbourne (World Championships) next year and Beijing (Olympics).”

The team raced to 3-0 at the quarter and held an almost unbeatable 7-2 lead at the halfway mark. This became 9-4 going into the last and a 10-4 margin at the start of the fourth proved what everyone thought — Australia would win the Cup.

From being ranked No 6 last year it is a huge step forward and head coach Greg McFadden said there will be “ a lot of pressure on the girls now”.

”I don’t think we will be favourite because there are six or seven teams capable of winning on the day. Look at the teams from last year’s World Championships in Montreal (Canada) — the silver-medallist USA finish fourth and World Champion Hungary was fifth. No 3 Canada was seventh.”

Brisbane Sirromet Barracudas had a low-scoring tournament for her but she slammed in two penalties with confidence and added a third for good measure.

Cronulla Sharks goalkeeper Alicia McCormack served fantastically in the cage, extinguishing many certain goals.

The team earns a well-deserved rest after playing in China, California, Italy and back to China in an odyssey that included fourth in the World League.

The USA finished without a medal after winning the “weaker” group, the first time it hasn’t taken anything home since the World Championships in Fukuoka, 2001. It lost to Russia 9-8 after trailing all game.

By winning the designated Australian Olympic Committee benchmark event for 2006, all players from the World Cup will receive $10,000 in adidas Medal Incentive Funding.  

The Australian team will depart Beijing late Monday evening for Australia.

Australian Water Polo