United States of America is aiming for back-to-back crowns and a third title in 10 years when it contests the World Aquatics U18 women’s water polo championships in Chengdu, China, starting on Sunday and running through until the following Sunday.
It is the first World Aquatics water polo event to be staged in China since the Covid-19 pandemic and the first time this event has been staged in Asia.
There are 16 teams in four groups to contest the eight-day event, which has attracted eight teams from Europe, two from China, three from America, two from Oceania and one from Africa.
The age group has been held since 2012 in Perth, Australia, although in 1998 the world junior championships were made into U18 once only.
USA is the only double youth champion with Greece, Spain and Russia the other victors. There was no competition in 2020 because of Covid.
Greece is one of only two triple medal winners with gold in 2012, silver two years ago in Belgrade, Serbia and bronze at the same venue in 2018. Hungary took out the silver in 2012 and bronzes in 2014 and 2022. Russia (gold, bronze), Spain (gold, silver) and Italy (silver, bronze) have stood on the dais twice each.
How They Shape Up
Group A:
Greece (second), Italy (fourth) and Spain (fifth) made the top five last time out and Netherlands was seventh, making this a very tight grouping indeed.
Group B:
USA has been included in the other seeded grouping alongside third-ranked Hungary from 2022, sixth-placed Australia and eighth-ranked New Zealand.
Two years ago, the stars for USA were Jenna Flynn and Emily Ausmus, who recently showed their true abilities on the biggest world stage at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. They scored half the goals in the gold-medal final in Belgrade when USA toppled Greece 10-8 and played a prominent part in USA’s fourth place in Paris with Flynn making the Media All Star Team.
Hungary brings back Kata Hajdu who has made her international senior debut as has goalkeeping New Zealander Gabrielle Doyle at Doha 2024.
This shows that making the top eight from the previous tournament has its benefits while the lower-ranked teams have a tougher avenue to the quarterfinals.
Group C:
Croatia, ninth in 2022 and Canada who finished 10th, head Group C with 15th-ranked South Africa joined by newcomer Thailand.
Group D:
China probably is the frontrunner in this group, not having contested the event since 2016 when it finished seventh. Turkiye was 16th in 2022; Mexico was 16th in 2016 in its only other appearance and Israel is playing for the first time.
The Competition
Each team has three matches during the first four days of competition to find the rankings. Not only A1 and B1 but A2 and B2 also advance directly to the quarters Third and fourth-ranked teams shall play crossovers with C-D top-two ranked sides (3 vs 2, 4 vs 1) while the bottom team in each group will go to a semifinal round for classification 12-16. The losers of the crossovers will contest semifinals for places nine to 12. Lower-ranked teams will play final classification matches on day six and seven. The final day will have the top eight teams playing off for rankings one to eight.
Day 1 Schedule
Match 1. 09:30. Group A, Thailand v Canada
Match 2. 11:00. Group A, Croatia v South Africa
Match 3. 12:30. Group B, Turkiye v Israel
Match 4. 14:30. Group B, China v Mexico