WATER POLO: The Australian women’s water polo team has won the bronze medal in the Kunshan Cup, in Kunshan, China with a clinical 8-6 defeat of Commonwealth rivals Canada.

The Aussie Stingers jumped out of the blocks to lead by a couple of goals at quarter time and despite Canada clawing back to even terms at half time, that was as close as they’d get.

The result was a welcome one for the Stingers who had suffered a heart breaking semi final loss to the Netherlands yesterday. The Dutch scored an equaliser with just one second remaining in regular time fore trumping the Australians 4-2 in the penalty shootout.

The Kunshan Cup is the precursor for next week’s FINA World Super League finals in Shanghai where the Stingers have been drawn in a group with Russia, Italy and the hosts, China, while the main event for 2015 is the FINA World Championships that begin in Kazan, Russia in late July.

Left hander Isobel Bishop and young guns Bronte Halligan and Chloe Barr all scored in the opening term as the Stingers opened up an early advantage, taking a 3-1 lead into the first break. The second period belonged to the Canadians though, with sharpshooter Ash Southern scoring Australia’s only goal as the teams went into half time all locked up at four goals apiece.

It was again a 3-1 period for the Stingers in the third with Bishop netting her second, whilst London Olympic bronze medallists Nicola Zagame and Glencora McGhie also got on the scoresheet. Southern once again was her side’s solitary scorer in the final quarter but the job was done and the Stingers were on the medal dais.

Bishop said the win over Canada was a positive note to end the tournament, with the Stingers improving throughout the week.

“I thought it was a really good game to finish on here in Kunshan, to have a win under the belt before going into the world league finals is really great for us,” Bishop said.

“We’ve been working on the little things each game and they seem to be coming together each game, step by step. In attack tonight we had a higher conversion rate and that certainly helped.”

Australia’s first game at the FINA Super League finals will be against Russia on Tuesday at 1940 AEST.

Result: Australia 8 bt Canada 6

WATER POLO AUSTRALIA