It will be a three-country fight to earn the last two Olympic spots available
Ottawa, February 10, 2024 - The Water Polo Canada Women's National Team qualified Saturday for the quarterfinals at the 2024 World Aquatics Championships held in Doha, Qatar, following a 14-12 win against New Zealand in its crossover match.
Axelle Crevier (3), Emma Wright (2), Verica Bakoc (2), Serena Browne (2), Shae La Roche (2), Hayley McKelvey (2), Kindred Paul (1) et Marilia Mimides (1) scored against New Zealand, allowing Canada to qualify as one of the top eight countries in the tournament. Two other teams among those that will also take part in the quarterfinals have not yet qualified for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, i.e. Hungary and Italy.
In order to qualify for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at these 2024 World Aquatics Championships, which is the last qualification event, the Canadian Team will have to be one of the top two squads among those that have not already qualified for the Olympic Games. The teams that have already qualified for the women’s Olympic tournament are: Australia, China, France, Greece, the Netherlands, South Africa, Spain and the United States.
Against the silver Olympic medalist
On Monday, Canada will face Spain at 9:30am (ET), which won the silver medal at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games as well as at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, Japan.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, the two teams faced each other in the group phase and Canada lost 14-10.
"I think we had a pretty tough match against New Zealand," said Axelle Crevier. "We started off well, but there were lapses on defense and we also lacked finishing on the attack. There are a lot of details to fine-tune for the match against Spain, which is a very good team. We want to manage all these little details that we lacked today."
"We're definitely happy that we won today and that we are in the top eight now," added Team Captain Emma Wright. "Spain is one of the best teams in the world, so it's going to be a really hard game. I think that we have to make sure that we just come out with a lot of intensity again, while making sure that we keep that up throughout the game, and just scouting them and making sure that we're ready."
“Spain has a great team and we're going to have to prepare strongly,” pointed out Water Polo Canada Women’s National Team Head Coach David Paradelo. “It isn't going to change a lot of things for us in terms of what we’re going to have to look out for; it's just going to change how we approach the game and how we handle the little details that make Spain different from the other teams.”
The other quarterfinal matchups to watch Monday are:
-Hungary against the Netherlands: Hungary ranked sixth at the 2023 World Aquatics Championships, while the Netherlands, already qualified for Paris, won gold in Fukuoka. In their game against China on Saturday, the Netherlands were involved in a hard-fought game, coming up with a tight win by the score of 16-14 against China;
-Italy against Greece: Italy ended up third overall in Fukuoka while Greece, which has already qualified for Paris, took the eighth spot.
The losing teams from Monday’s games will ultimately fight for positions 5 to 8, while the winners are guaranteed to finish amongst the top four.
Games are streamed on the CBC Sports ((https://www.cbc.ca/sports/streaming-schedule?sport=Aquatics-Water-Polo), Radio-Canada Sports (https://ici.radio-canada.ca/sports/diffusions and https://ici.tou.tv/en-direct) and World Aquatics (https://www.worldaquatics.com/watch-live) web platforms.
Canadian Women’s National Team for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships
BAKOC, Verica (Toronto, ON) - Mavericks
BROWNE, Serena (Pointe-Claire, QC) - DDO
CARROLL, Floranne (Montréal, QC) - CAMO
CREVIER, Axelle (Montréal, QC) - CAMO
GAUDREAULT, Jessica (Ottawa, ON) - Capital Wave
GUÈVREMONT, Daphné (Montréal, QC) - CAMO
LA ROCHE, Shae (Winnipeg, MB) - Winnipeg Bushido/EAU Laval
LEKNESS, Rae (Calgary, AB) - Calgary Renegades
LEMAY-LAVOIE, Elyse (Montréal, QC) - CAMO
MCDOWELL, Blaire (Fernie, B.C.) - Water Polo Saskatchewan
McKELVEY, Hayley (North Delta, B.C.) - Pacific Storm
MIMIDES, Maria Eleni (Marilia) (Glyfada, GRE, & Toronto, ON) - DDO
PAUL, Kindred (Spruce Grove, AB) - Edmonton Tsunami - Edmonton Tsunami
VULPISI, Clara (Montréal, QC) - CAMO
WRIGHT, Emma (Whitby, ON) - Scarborough Shadow Water polo
Alternate: DAVIS, Lucy (Port Moody, B.C.) - Pacific Storm
Water Polo Canada Women’s National Team Support Staff for the 2024 World Aquatics Championships
Head Coach: David Paradelo
Assistant Coaches: Cora Campbell & Stefano Posterivo
Massage Therapist: Manon Prieur
Physiotherapist: Brian Li
Mental Performance Coach (preparatory training camp): Sommer Christie
Video Coach: Francisco Zelaya
Team Manager: Mitch Kaufman
High Performance Director: Olivier Pineau
Hélène Painchaud from Montréal, QC, is attending the 2024 World Aquatics Championships as a referee.
More information is available on Water Polo Canada’s website at https://waterpolo.ca/content/doha-2024.
Toronto Golden Jets - Gold (M/H)
