Canadian women's water polo team wins opener at World Aquatics Championships
Tourney is last chance for team to qualify for Paris Olympic Games
With their Olympic dreams on the line, the Canadian women's water polo team was looking to get off to a good start at the World Aquatics Championships.
They couldn't have hoped for a better result in their opening match, breezing to a 24-2 victory over South Africa on Sunday in Doha.
Axelle Crevier, Emma Wright, and Elyse Lemay-Lavoie each had five goals in the blowout win.
"We wanted to come into this game strong, we wanted to have a good start to the tournament, and I think we were able to do that," Wright, the Canadian team captain, said. "I think just getting the jitters out were important in this game and to make sure we're going hard and pushing forward in the rest of this tournament."
The Canadians jumped out to a 6-0 lead by the end of the first quarter, scoring in six of eight shots on goal while their stout defence turned away all five shots by the South Africans.
Canada added three more goals to take a 9-0 lead into halftime.
"The girls started the tournament well, how we wanted to start, strong, fast and just keeping the intensity throughout the game," Canada head coach David Paradelo said. "We don't want to slow down; we're getting into harder games as we're going on, so we've got to put the bar high in the first game."
South Africa didn't get on the board until 3:50 remaining in the third quarter, when they scored to make it a 12-1 game.
Canada's next match is on Tuesday against Great Britain, and Wright said that her team's plan will be similar to how they played against South Africa.
"We haven't seen Great Britain in awhile, we're preparing against them [with] video, but I think we're going to come out the same way we did in this game and just push from the beginning to the end," she said.
Just 2 Olympic spots available
Two Olympic spots are up for grabs in Doha as half of the 16 women's teams competing have already locked up their berths for Paris, so Canada needs to be one of the top two finishers of those yet to qualify to book their Olympic ticket.
Going by world rankings and recent results, it'll be a three-way battle for those two spots between Canada, Italy, and Hungary.
The Canadians are slotted in Group D along with the Italians, who scored a 22-10 win over Great Britain earlier in the day.
Canada and Italy will meet on Thursday.
WATCH | Canada vs. South Africa at World Aquatics Championships:
The top team in each of the four groups advances directly to the quarterfinals, while the runner-up goes to a one-game playoff for a spot in the quarters.
CBC Sports will live stream action from the World Aquatics Championships on CBC Gem, the CBC Sports app, and on CBCSports.ca. Click here for the full broadcast schedule from Doha.
Canada roster
- Verica Bakoc — Toronto
- Serena Browne — Pointe-Claire, Que.
- Floranne Carroll — Montreal
- Axelle Crevier — Montréal
- Jessica Gaudreault — Ottawa
- Daphné Guèvremont — Montreal
- Shae La Roche — Winnipeg
- Rae Lekness — Calgary
- Elyse Lemay-Lavoie — Calgary
- Blaire McDowell — Fernie, B.C.
- Maria Eleni Mimides — Glyfada, GRE, & Toronto
- Hayley McKelvey — North Delta, B.C.
- Kindred Paul — Spruce Grove, Alta.
- Clara Vulpisi — Montreal
- Emma Wright — Whitby, Ont.
- Lucy Davis (alternate) — Port Moody, B.C.
Canada 4th in team acrobatic
The eight members of Canada's acrobatic squad placed fourth in the women's team event with 222.1367 points, more than 20 shy of the United States (242.2300) for bronze.
China had top marks in artistic impression (87.4) and scored well in the total difficulty and execution categories to win the event with a score of 244.1767 to retain its title.
Ukraine captured silver with 243.3167 points.
At the Olympics, the team acrobatic, technical and free events are combined together into one artistic swimming team competition.
Men have competed in artistic swimming at the world championships since 2015 — when the sport was still known as synchronized swimming —and will be allowed to be part of Olympic teams for the first time this year in Paris.
Hungarian prevails in men's 10 km open water
Kristof Rasovszky of Hungary won his second career world title in open water swimming with victory in the men's 10-kilometre event at the Old Doha Port.
The Olympic silver medallist in 2021 reached the finish in one hour 48 minutes 21.20 seconds, a 2.40-second victory over France's Marc-Antoine Olivier (1:48:23.60), with Britain's Hector Pardoe third (1:48:29.20).
Calgary-born Eric Hedlin, who was raised in San Diego and lives in Victoria, B.C., was 31st in 1:50:17.90. The two-time world silver medallist also placed 31st at last year's competition in in Fukuoka, Japan.
The 30-year-old was also part of the 4×1,500-metre mixed relay squad that finished 10th, higher than Canada had ever placed before.
Swimming Canada's male open water swimmer of the year in 2018 was third in the 10 km race at the Canadian open water trials the following year that qualified him for his fourth worlds.
Hedlin's teammate Hau-Li Fan of Burnaby, B.C., was 36th of 77 finishers on Sunday in 1:52:08.70.
A 2021 Olympian, he didn't finish the race at the open water swimming World Cup in December.
The 26-year-old won bronze at World Cups in 2017 and 2019.
Chinese men extend synchro diving win streak
Diving powerhouse China won gold in the men's 3-metre synchronized springboard for the fourth time in a row.
Wang Zongyuan and Long Daoyi were the top scorers in five of the six rounds and finished with a total 442.41 points, beating Italy's Lorenzo Marsaglia and Giovanni Tocci on 384.24 and Spain's Adrian Abadia and Nicolas Garcia Boissier on 383.28.
Wang and Long won the world title last year in Fukuoka, Japan. Wang also won Olympic gold in 2021 and the world title in 2022 with other partners.
Canada didn't have a team in the field of 27.
In the mixed duet technical event, which isn't on the Olympic program, Nargiza Bolatova and Eduard Kim won the first- ever artistic swimming world title for Kazakhstan, beating China's Cheng Wentao and Shi Haoyu into second. Mexico's Miranda Barrera Jimenez and Diego Villalobos Carrillo took bronze.
With files from Water Polo Canada and The Associated Press
