AUSSIES READY TO MAKE MARK AT FINA WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN BUDAPEST

Published Mon 20 Jun 2022

Australia’s men’s and women’s water polo teams have arrived in Hungary ahead of the FINA World Championships which get underway on Tuesday 21 June.

The FINA World Championships will give the new look Aussie Sharks and Stingers squads the chance to match it with the best of the best as they continue to build towards the 2024 Olympic Games.

FINA have adopted a new structure for the 2022 World Championships, with each group to be based at a different city in Hungary before returning to Budapest for the finals stages.

The Aussie Stingers have been drawn in Group C with Kazakhstan, New Zealand and Brazil, and will be based in Sopron, where they will play their first match against Kazakhstan on Tuesday 21 June (3.30am AEST).

As one of eight Aussie Stingers set to make their World Championships debut, Tokyo Olympian Matilda Kearns said she’s excited for what’s to come.

“I’m really excited to show what the Aussie Stingers have got at the World Championships,” Kearns said.

“We’re a young group, who have a lot of passion and a lot of girls that can just create things from nowhere and that’s really exciting.

“I’m looking forward to showing the world what we can do, I’m expecting big things from us and I think everyone else should as well,” she said.

The Aussie Sharks are part of men’s Group D, with Serbia, Kazakhstan and the USA, and will be based in Hungary’s third largest city, Szeged.

In their first World Championships game, the Aussie Sharks will also match up against Kazakhstan on Wednesday 22 June (2am AEST), a team they haven’t played since the Tokyo Olympics.

World Championships debutant Nic Porter said the Aussie Sharks are hoping to make their mark on the competition early.

“We have a DNA where we just want to out work every other team, so we’re not going to rely on talent or experience, we’re going to beat teams by working harder than them,” Porter said.

“We’re also quite a young team, so there’s going to be lots of excitement and lots of fresh faces that are going to want to prove themselves on the international stage.

“So I’m very excited for what’s to come, and hopefully we can achieve some great things,” he said.

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After the Spanish training camps, there have been a few updates to team line ups with Pascalle Casey coming into the Aussie Stingers to replace Alice Williams who has returned to Australia with a hand injury, while Reilly Townsend will make his World Championships debut, replacing an injured Angus Lambie.

AUSSIE STINGERS TEAM

AUSSIE SHARKS TEAM

Abby Andrews (QLD)

Charlize Andrews (QLD)

Zoe Arancini (WA)

Hayley Ballesty (NSW)

Pascalle Casey (NSW)*

Tenealle Fasala (QLD)

Bronte Halligan (NSW)

Tilly Kearns (NSW)

Bridget Leeson-Smith (QLD)

Genevieve Longman (NSW)