(Montreal) The Canadian women’s water polo team wrapped up the worlds preliminary round robin with a 17-12 win over Japan on Thursday in Fukuoka. This second victory in three outings earned him second place in Group D and a ticket to the next round.
The Canadians got off to a flying start against the home favorites, building a 5-1 lead in the first quarter. Transported by this dazzling start to the match, coach David Paradelo’s squad never looked back. She countered all of her uniquely styled opponent’s strategies en route to a second straight triumph in Japan.
“Couldn’t really have asked for a better start to the game!” The girls followed the plan to the letter and remained focused despite several unorthodox attacks from the Japanese. It was a really good group effort,” Paradelo commented in a post-game interview.
Once again, the veterans of the Canadian team answered the call for this duel. Quebecers Élyse Lemay-Lavoie (5) and Axelle Crevier (4) were the spark plugs for the Maple Leaf attack, which also saw Hayley McKelvey (3), Emma Wright (2), Serena Browne, Kindred Paul and Shae LaRoche find the back of the net on Thursday.
“The Japanese play very different water polo than what we are used to. It’s difficult to face them, but we were really ready with our game plan. We put effort into finishing and defensively. It was a very good team match overall, “analyzed Axelle Crevier, named player of the match at the end of the clash.
“I just managed to complete good plays from my teammates,” she continued with a laugh. It’s a team sport and everyone did their job well today (Thursday). It’s good to feel so good in the water and we will try to do the same for the rest of the tournament. »
Canada, which also counts Floranne Carroll, Daphne Guévremont and Clara Vulpisi among its ranks, will face its next challenge on Saturday, in the round of 16. For the occasion, the country will face South Africa, third in Group C with a record of one victory and two losses since the start of these World Championships.
“There is no turning back from here. It will be the start of the knockout matches and we will have to give everything and even more to achieve our goal of reaching the top-8. We will have to be even more focused on the game plan and we will be ready,” concluded Crevier.
Earlier Thursday, swimmers Eric Brown, Emma Finlin, Bailey O’regan and Eric Hedlin took part in the mixed 4 x 1500m relay contested in the waters of Hakata Bay. With a cumulative time of 1:14:11.8, the Canadians finally finished tenth, just over 3 minutes 40 seconds behind the new world champions: the Italians.
The latter covered the distance in 1 h 10 min 31.2 s to climb on the top step of the podium, ahead of the Hungarians (4.1 seconds) and the Australians (55.5 seconds).
Also in action on Thursday, diver Pamela Ware shone in the opening of the women’s individual 3m springboard event. The double Olympian first finished third in the preliminaries, before securing her place for the final session with a fourth place in the semi-final.
Also in the running, Mia Vallée saw her career come to an end in qualifying, where she finished 21st.
The top 12 athletes at the end of the day on Thursday now go to the final scheduled for Friday.