Courtesy: FINA
The FINA Women’s Water Polo World League Super Final 2021 is taking place from June 14-19 in Athens (GRE) and gathers eight of the best teams in the world. It will also be an excellent appetizer for the Olympic tournament, starting on July 24 in Tokyo (JPN).
From Europe, four squads have qualified after a home and away tournament, dictated by the uncertainties related with the COVID-19 pandemic. They are Hungary, Russia, Spain, and the host country of the Super Final, Greece.
The non-European teams include USA, Canada, Japan and Kazakhstan.
The composition of the two groups playing the preliminary phase of the competition is as follows:
Group A: Hungary, Russia, Canada and Japan
Group B: United States, Spain, Kazakhstan and Greece
Schedule of the preliminary round:
Day 1 – June 14, 2021
ESP-KAZ
HUN-JPN
CAN-RUS
USA-GRE
Day 2 – June 15, 2021
CAN-JPN
RUS-HUN
USA-KAZ
GRE-ESP
Day 3 – June 16, 2021
HUN-CAN
ESP-USA
JPN-RUS
KAZ-GRE
The US team (current Olympic and world champion) is clearly the favourite for the gold, after triumphing in the World League on 13 occasions – moreover, the North Americans have also secured one silver and one bronze medal in the competition. Greece (2005) and Russia (2008) are also included in the list of the previous winners of the World League.