Pre-Olympics Water Polo Invitational
Sunday, went over to Sg Sports School to catch the pre-olympics water polo invitational matches.
1st time in my life watching live matches of water polo. Know not much about this sport, but sitting through 3+ matches allowed me to gain a better appreciation of water polo. Somehow it resembles rugby: with the dirty tactics and rough play such as biting, scratching, tugging etc or the unconspicuous acts under the water such as kicking, dragging, tearing etc! And the running of legs of rugby replaced by the swimming of the upper body of water polo. Of course not forgetting, the team coordination and the tactics. These made my visit very worthwhile (as well as some of the SSS helpers. :D) and I hope to try this sport one of these days!
Anyways, the teams which i caught include (bold are the teams who won):
Men's
Montenegro (Athen Olympics Silver medalist) vs Australia
Italy vs Germany
Women's
Italy (Gold in Athens Olympics) vs Russia (Bronze in Sydney Olympics)
China vs Greece (Silver in Athens Olympics)
These players are really huge. I heard that the guys' average height is around 1.90+m!!
Here are some snapshots:
Montenegro during break from 1st period
Australia on break
The Germans (I think)
Germans vs Italians
Another shot of G vs I
The Russian girls
Guarding and attacking (China vs Greece)