The Inter-Continental Cup of the 2018 edition of the FINA Water Polo World League starts today in Auckland (NZL), with the participation of nine teams in the men’s tournament and seven national squads in the women’s field. The competition will take place until April 8 in the Sir Owen G. Glenn National Aquatic Centre, and will qualify the best four teams in each tournament for the respective Super Finals of the World League.
FINA Inter-Continental Men’s Competition
Among men, the preliminaries will be played between April 3-7 and the classification matches will take place on April 8. The two groups (A and B) include the following teams:
GROUP A: Kazakhstan, New Zealand 2, Argentina, Australia and Canada
GROUP B: China, New Zealand, Japan, United States and Saudi Arabia
FINA Inter-Continental Women’s Competition
The women’s competition will include preliminaries from April 3-5, then a quarter-final round on April 6, the semi-finals on April 7 and the final games on April 8. The composition of the groups is as follows:
GROUP A: New Zealand, China, Canada and Japan
GROUP B: Kazakhstan, United States, Australia and New Zealand 2
As with the men’s tournament, the ranking of New Zealand 2 in the final standing will not count for a possible qualification for the Super Final. If applicable, the next ranked team will take that spot.
All the action in Auckland can be followed live or on demand on FINAtv.
The Inter-Continental Cup is played when the European preliminaries of the 2018 World League are already well advanced. After the fifth round among men, Serbia, Croatia and Hungary lead their respective groups, while among women, Spain is the best so far in the sole group in Europe.
The Super Final of the competition will be contested, for men, on June 18-23 in Russia (city to be confirmed), and on May 28-June 2 in Kunshan (CHN) for the women’s competition.
About Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA)
The Fédération Internationale de Natation, founded in 1908, is the governing body for aquatics worldwide. FINA’s five discipline Swimming, Open Water Swimming, Diving, Water Polo and Synchronised Swimming – are all included in the Olympic programme. High Diving made its first appearance in FINA events at the 2013 FINA World Championships. FINA counts 209 affiliated National Federations on the five continents and has its headquarters in Lausanne (SUI).
Press release courtesy of FINA.