Galery

2

1

Anastasia Balezdrova

With one goal difference and after a particularly exciting and tense match the Greek national women's water polo team won the highest title at the World Water Sports Cup in China. The Greeks took the victory away from the hosts and became the first Greek national team to win a gold medal at the World Cup.

The "Golden Girls" of coach Georgo Morfesis led by 1-0 in the first minute with a goal scored by Alexandra Asimaki. The Chinese women evened the score in the fifth minute with a goal from Liu as they played with one more swimmer. The first part ended with a score of 2-2.

In the tenth minute Greece led again with a goal scored by Roubesi, which had sent the ball into the net of Yang earlier as well. With the precise goal of Manoliudaki two minutes later the Greeks increased the difference with two goals.

The third very active part began with the third consecutive goal of Rubesi but Liu decreased the difference in the score to 5:3 in the 18th minute. Asimaki scored the sixth point for Greece. Then followed goals by Tang, Melidoni, Wang and Asimaki again. Wang decreased the difference and the third part ended with a score of 8:6 in favor of Greece.

In the last part the lead took again the Chinese, who missed the initial ball only at the start of the second part. With the goal of Liosi the Greeks increased again the difference to three goals but missed the opportunity to score the tenth goal in the 26th minute as the ball hit the crossbar of the Chinese goal post. Two minutes later, Sung scored in favor of China. The precise goal of Sun decreased the difference to just one point. Over the last twenty seconds Greece strengthen their defense by playing with one less swimmer. Coach George Morfesis requested a time-out and Greece won the world title with a score of 9:8.

Despite the great success, this is not the first medal for the Greek water polo players, who always returned with medals from the championships, in which they took part. So far they have in their collection silver medals from the Athens Olympics in 2004 and from the European Championships in Zagreb last year.