Croatia had a stellar 2024 with three finals, but with just the World Aquatics title on its resumé. It lost to Spain after leading the European Championship final and then rallied a month later to win the Doha world championships and completed the trio of finals with a loss to Serbia at the Paris Olympic Games. One gold and two silvers was a magnificent year, but the strike rate must rankle.
Croatia is trying to build on its glorious 2024 and fourth place in this year’s World Aquatics World Cup.
Croatian captain Marko Bijac said before yesterday’s opening media conference: “I believe we had very good preparations for these World Championships; we didn’t have any big injuries in the team and we are ready to start the tournament. We are aware that it will be very difficult to defend the gold. We will do our best, starting, of course, with the first game against China, then after Montenegro and Greece — we have a difficult group. Then after we will go game after game and see how far we can go this time.”
Spain won the European crown last year and this year’s World Cup while its junior men are fresh from the U20 title in Zagreb, and the women are Olympic champion. Much pressure will be on Spain in what was to have been the post-Felipe Perrone era but instead, the high-scoring Perrrone has made himself available for his incredible 13th and last World Aquatics Championship tilt.
Spain, without Perrone, stood up to the challenge in Podgorica, Montenegro in April. A win over Germany set it up for 19-14 over Croatia and 15-14 against Greece in the final.
Alvaro Granados will relish teaming up with the maestro once again as he threw eight goals against Hungary in the divisional series in January and in the finals series, fired in seven against Croatia and four past Greece in the gold-medal decider to be named MVP.
Serbia is proudly regrouping after its historic triple Olympic success last year and Italy has a point to prove when it was denied inclusion in the 2025 World Cup because of its protest at the Paris Olympic Games earning a six-month suspension.
Head coach Sandro Campagna said: “I don't think the absence in the World Cup affects the team's performance in Singapore. We took advantage of the winter period to do a lot of tests with the new rules. Italy will always be a team that will fight for medals.”
The Groups
Group A: Italy, Romania, Serbia, South Africa.
Group B: Australia, Hungary, Japan, Spain.
Group C: Brazil, Canada, Singapore, United States of America.
Group D: China, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro.
One would suspect that Australia and Italy would fight for Group A; Netherlands and USA for Group B, Greece and Hungary for Group C and Spain and France for Group D.
Possible Winners
Looking at 2025 form, Spain, Greece, Hungary, Croatia and Montenegro have to be in the hunt. Serbia and back-from-suspension Italy and United States of America must have a look in as the latter has seven Olympic players coming to Singapore.
Group B looks most interesting with Japan beating Australia in Paris after the Aussie Sharks racked up some huge scalps. The non-European Group C should throw up an interesting pair for the quarterfinal hunt.
Historically Speaking
In 21 editions, Hungary and Italy have four titles each with Hungary having the most overall medals with seven silvers and one bronze for 12. Imagine, Hungary playing in 11 finals and only winning four! Italy has four silvers and a bronze for nine overall.
Spain has 10 medals — three gold, four silver and three bronze. Dual winners were Serbia (2-1-1), USSR (2-1-1) and Yugoslavia (2-1-3). The only single winner is Serbia & Montenegro from 2005, as well as one bronze (2003).
Notable for their absence is any country outside Europe. USA and Australia have knocked on the door with USA fourth in 2009, 1991 and 1986 and Australia fourth in 1998. Cuba was fourth in the second edition in 1975. But they are the only non-European teams to knock on the door.
This Decade
Because of the unusual nature of the Covid and post-Covid pandemic, there have been three World Aquatics Championships already this decade — 2022 Budapest, 2023 Fukuoka and 2024 Doha. Singapore will be the third consecutive Asian venue — all sandwiched by Budapest championships. Spain has gold and two bronzes; Italy has two silvers; Greece has silver and bronze; while the other two medals went to champions Hungary and Croatia. Beaten medal finalists were Croatia, Serbia and France.
New Rules
Singapore 2025 will contain the new rules for men and women with men being affected with a reduced pool size from 20m to 25m; the timing where possession time has been trimmed to 28 seconds from the normal 30 and the regaining of the ball from a corner or exclusion in front of goal moving from 20 seconds to 18 seconds. Other changes include the number of players per team out to 15, with only 13 on the game roster each time, and one challenge per match for each team. If a challenge is lost there is no other chance. If it is won, there is one more chance, only.
Leading Players To Watch
Australia: Nic Porter, Luke Pavillard, Nathan Power.
Croatia: Konstantin Kharkov, Loren Fatovic, Josip Vrlic.
Greece: Stylianos Argyropoulos, Konstantinos Kakaris, Dimitrios Skoumpakis.
Hungary: Krisztian Manhercz, Adam Nagy, Vendel Vigvari.
Italy: Francesco di Fulvio, Edoardo Di Somma, Nicholas Presciutti.
Montenegro: Dusan Matkovic, Nikola Moskov, Strahinja Gojkovic.
Serbia: Dusan Mandic, Nikola Jaksic, Strahinja Rasovic.
Spain: Unai Aguirre, Alvaro Granados, Felipe Perrone.
United States of America: Hannes Daube, Ryder Dodd, Max Irving.
First-Day Programme
Match 1. 09:00. Group A, Serbia v South Africa.
Match 2. 10:35. Group C, Canada v United States of America.
Match 3. 12:10. Group D, China v Croatia.
Match 4. 13:45. Group C, Brazil v Singapore.
Match 5. 16:00. Group B, Spain v Japan.
Match 6. 17:35. Group B, Hungary v Australia.
Match 7. 19:10. Group D, Montenegro v Greece.
Match 8. 20:45. Group A, Romania v Italy.