SA women's water polo side crash to rivals New Zealand

News24
16 Jul 2019, 23:43 GMT+10

Cape Town - The South Africa women's water polo team was better, but still no match for rivals New Zealand in their second match at the FINA World Aquatics Championships in Gwangju, South Korea on Tuesday.

Having been thrashed 33-0 by the Netherlands in their opener on Sunday, they fared slightly better in going down 17-4 to their Kiwi opponents at the Nambu University Aquatics Centre.

The scores in each of the eight-minute quarters read 6-0, 2-0, 6-2 and 3-2.

Having lost their first two matches, the SA side have already been eliminated from qualifying for the medal rounds.

They will next be in action against defending champions and gold medal favourites, the USA, on Thursday, July 18 at 09:30 SA time.

The USA beat New Zealand 22-3 and the Netherlands 12-9 in their opening matches, suggesting a long day may be in store for South Africa later in the week.

At the last world championships in 2017, the SA women's side finished 16th - and last - in the tournament, scoring 20 goals in five matches and conceding 65.

The SA women's team was thrown into turmoil in the weeks leading up to the tournament when coach Seri Harris was inexplicably axed.

Harris, who was coaching voluntarily, only found out about her dismissal when the squad was announced - and her name wasn't read out.

Meanwhile, the SA men's water polo side got their campaign off to a 23-3 defeat to Spain on Monday. They will next be in action on Wednesday, July 17, also against New Zealand, at 05:30 SA time.

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