Hungary & Netherlands qualify for Olympics in women’s water polo

 Hungary and the Netherlands have secured qualification for the upcoming Tokyo Olympics at the recently concluded FINA Women’s Water Polo Olympic Games Qualification Tournament.

Both the teams won the Olympic berths by entering the finals after winning the semifinal matches against host Italy and Greece during the tournament held from January 19-24, FINA stated in a media release.

In the finals, Hungary snatched the win over the Netherlands 13-11 by dominating the first and third quarters (4-3, 2-2, 5-3, 2-3) while in the bronze medal match, Greece crushed Italy 10-4 with a strong start in the first quarter (4-1, 0-1, 4-1, 2-1).

For the fifth spot, France imposed itself against Kazakhstan for a final score of 12-10 (3-1, 3-3, 3-4, 3-2), and Israel defeated Slovakia 13-10 (2-1, 1-4, 5-3, 5-2) for places 7-8.

Hungary and the Netherlands now join the eight other teams, including the US, Canada, China, Australia, South Africa, Spain, Russia and host Japan, which have already qualified for the Tokyo Games.

The FINA Men’s Water Polo Olympic Games Qualification Tournament will be held in Rotterdam, the Netherlands on February 14-21, 2021.

The Tokyo Olympics, which were slated to be held in July-August last year, had to be postponed to summer of 2021 due to the Covid-19 pandemic.