World champion USA dumped by Greece; bring on Spain
Greece will play Spain in the gold-medal final of the World Aquatics Women’s U18 Championships at the Dongan Lake Sports Park in Chengdu on Sunday while United States of America and Hungary will contest the bronze-medal final. Greece and Spain are both former winners.
In the classification 1-4 semifinals, Greece outplayed defending champion United States of America in the final quarter for a 13-8 margin and Spain was the better against Hungary, winning 10-7.
In the classification 5-8 semifinals, Australia outplayed Netherlands
In the classification 5-8 semifinals, Australia outplayed Netherlands 10-8 and Italy cruised home in the final quarter over New Zealand 10-6.
In final classification matches, China thumped Croatia 22-11 for ninth position and Israel broke an 11-11 deadlock in the final two minutes to win the play-off for 11th 14-11.
The conclusion of the classification 13-16 round robin was fascinating with Thailand taking out the group, and thus 13th classification, by defeating South Africa in sudden-death penalty shootout 21-20 after the match was tied at 16.
In the other match, Turkiye defeated Mexico 10-4 for third place at 15th while Mexico remained winless for 16th position.
