Canada picks up 1st women's water polo win in dominant fashion over South Africa
Canadians next face the Netherlands on Sunday in final preliminary match
Canada's women's water polo squad handily defeated the Republic of South Africa 21-1 to pick up its first win of the Olympics on Wednesday in Tokyo.
Prior to the match, Canada (1-2) had lost its first two against the current top seeds of Pool A — Australia and Spain. Meanwhile, South Africa (0-2) had been blown out 29-4 in its lone match of the tournament against Spain.
Currently sitting in third in Group A, the victory put Canada on track to make the quarter-finals. The Canadians will just need to finish ahead of a winless South African squad that has struggled mightily, allowing 50 goals total in two games.
The quarter-final bracket consists of the top four teams from each group, starting Aug. 3.
Canada wraps up a dominant win over South Africa in <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/Tokyo2020?src=hash&ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">#Tokyo2020</a> women's water polo 🤽♀️<a href="https://twitter.com/waterpolocanada?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@waterpolocanada</a> <a href="https://t.co/6Kd8msLQ31">pic.twitter.com/6Kd8msLQ31</a>
—@CBCOlympicsThe Netherlands round out the Group A standings in fourth place. Group B consists of the U.S., Hungary, the Russian Olympic Committee (ROC), China and Japan.
With both teams looking to pick up their first win, Canada got going early with Kyra Christmas of High River, Alta., scoring the first of her three goals 57 seconds into the match. From that point forward, the Canadians never looked back, relentlessly swarming the South Africans on the defensive end, forcing turnovers and then finding open scoring lanes met with little resistance.
Gurpreet Sohi of Delta, B.C., led the way for Canada with four goals on six shot attempts.
Canada faces the Netherlands on Sunday in its final preliminary round match.
