United States of America goes into the Tokyo 2020 Olympics women’s water polo competition as the raging favourite in its quest for a third successive gold medal as play starts at the Tatsumi Water Polo Centre on Saturday, July 24.

With Covid-19 disrupting the international calendar, predictions will be skewed with just the Olympic Games Qualification Tournament in Trieste and the FINA World League Super Final in Athens being the yardsticks for some teams.

The expanded competition means women’s water polo has come a long way since 2000 when just six teams took the stage. That became eight teams in 2004 and this year the number is 10 for the first time.

The competition is broken into two groups of five with Group A containing Canada, Australia, Spain, Netherlands and South Africa. Group B has USA, host Japan, China, Hungary and Russia. Teams will play a round robin in their groups, followed by quarterfinals, semifinals and the all-important medal round, on August 7.

Group A

Australia travelled straight to Tokyo with no international competition since Covid-19 hit and will be an unknown quantity, although it will be captained by three-time Olympian Rowie Webster. Bronwen Knox becomes the first Australian and possibly only the fourth woman to compete in four Olympic Games. Australia has the oldest average age in Tokyo (27 years 290 days) , slightly ahead of Canada (27 years 13 days).

Canada, led by Monika Eggens, won a group in Athens, but fell away to fourth at the Super Final. Its long journey on the road to Tokyo could bring some rewards. Canada contested the first two Olympics with fifth and seventh and for 450-plus match veteran Joelle Bekhazi, the dream has been finally realised.

European champion Spain, captained by Pili Pena (35), qualified through the 2019 FINA World Championships and finished fifth at the FINA World League Super Final, beating Greece 12-9 with a late rally. Centre forwards Maica Garcia and Paula Leiton provide a magnificent spearhead at two metres.

Netherlands gained its Tokyo berth with an OGQT 7-4 semifinal victory over Greece — with a shut-out second half — and then bowed to Hungary in the dead-rubber final. That tenacity in beating the strong Greeks will come in handy. Maud Megens will relish Netherlands’ first Olympic appearance since winning gold at Beijing 2008.

Olympic debutante South Africa completes the group, although two original members had to remain home because of Covid-19. One included the experienced Kelsey White who was to lead the Rainbow Nation.

Group B

USA has been almost unstoppable since winning gold at Rio 2016 and currently owns the Olympic, World, World Cup and World League crowns. Under head coach Adam Krikorian, USA won the recent FINA World League Super Final for an unprecedented 14th time.

If USA wins a medal in Tokyo, it will maintain a streak going back to the inaugural competition at Sydney 2000 as having taken a medal at every Olympic Games. Captain Maggie Steffens was named most valuable player at the last two editions and fellow double gold medallist Mel Seidemann headline a team which includes five Olympic debutantes.

Hungary has the recent form to push for group dominance, having pushed USA hard in the opening quarters of the recent FINA World League Super Final in Athens. With the relentless Rita Keszthelyi at the helm, Hungary has the credentials to make the top four.

The Russian Olympic Committee, as the team from Russia is named, qualified via the 2020 European Championships and won the bronze medal with a 10-8 victory over Canada at the Athens Super Final. The 17-8 loss to USA in the semifinal shows there is a chasm to be bridged. Ekaterina Prokofyeva is the driving force behind her team’s progress in recent years

The Asian qualifiers are on the same side of the draw. Japan is the host nation and will be out to show that it has arrived in the top echelon of women’s teams in its Olympic debut. With firebrand Yumi Arima containing an arsenal of shots, the generally smaller Japanese and youngest team in Tokyo, make up for size with guile and speed.

China has been off the radar for some time and with Balkan coaching legend Petar Porobic guiding China, watch out. Guannan Niu and Jing Zhang will be frontrunners in a team trying for catch-up in the Covid era. As host in 2008, China finished fifth, beating Italy and went on to finish fifth in 2012 and seventh in 2016.

Opening day programme
Match 1, 14:00, Group B, JAPAN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA
Match 2, 15:30, Group A, CANADA AUSTRALIA
Match 3, 18:20, Group A, SOUTH AFRICA SPAIN
Match 4, 19:50, Group B, CHINA RUSSIA
Netherlands and Hungary have the byes.