They will face the 2000 and 2004 gold medallist Hungary, European qualifier and hot favourite Montenegro, world No 3 Spain, No 6 Greece, as well as Canada, who upset Romania for the final berth at the recent qualification tournament.

Both draws were made in Beijing this morning with the World Cup champion Aussie Stingers women being seeded alongside 2004 Olympic silver medallist Greece, who gained the final spot for this year’s event, European qualifier the Netherlands and 2005 world champion Hungary.

Aussie Sharks head coach John Fox, who attended the draw, said there was no weak group.

“We have to treat every game as a final because we cannot afford to drop any game. Our first three games are winnable — against Greece, Spain and Canada — lifting us to the big teams — Hungary then Montenegro.

“From a planning point of view it is good as we will play Montenegro in a lead-up tournament in Singapore and we don’t meet them in Beijing until the final round game.

“We just want to play to the best of our ability. There are always upsets at the Olympics,” he said.

Group B contains world champion Croatia, World League champion Serbia, qualification tournament winner Germany and runner-up Italy, as well as world No 9 the United States of America and host China.

Stingers head coach Greg McFadden mirrored Fox’s thoughts.

“It’s a tough draw because at the Olympic Games every team’s there to win it. There is no easy draw. The Chinese over the past couple of days have proved they are going to be quite competitive so you can take out any easy games.

In our group from the last World Championships we’ve got teams ranked two, four, eight and nine. The other group has one, three, five and 14 for China but they’re not where they were at the world champs.

“Anyone on their day can beat each other and now the Chinese are in that mix also.

“We’re not disappointed but we’re not overly excited either,” McFadden said.

The other group contains World and World League champion USA, Olympic champion Italy, European champion Russia and host China.

The Aussie teams are both currently competing in the Olympic test event, the Good Luck China Open, at the Yingdong Natatorium here.

The women beat Russia 13-8 for their second victory while the Aussie Sharks men gained a second win over a provincial team, beating Shanghai 19-6 last night.

The women will play world champion United States of America in the tournament decider later tonight and the men will clash with China for gold tomorrow.

Results:
Olympic test event, Beijing, China:
Men, day 2: Australia 19 (S Cody, G Richardson 4, G Woods, T Franklin, J Cotterill, A Martin, R Howden 2, J Beadsworth) Shanghai 6, China 17 Guangdong 11. Progress points: Australia 4, China 4, Shanghai 0, Guangdong 0.
Women, day 2: Australia 13 (R Rippon, K Gynther 3, G Beadsworth, N Cuffe, B Knox, J Santoromito, M Santoromito, M Rippon, A Hetzel) Russia 8, USA 8 China 3. Progress points: USA 4, Australia 4, China 0, Russia 0.

Olympic draws:
Men: Group A: Spain, Australia, Hungary, Montenegro, Greece, Canada. Group B: Serbia, Croatia, USA, China, Italy, Germany.
Women: Group A: USA, Russia, Italy, China. Group B: Greece, Hungary, Netherlands, Australia.


Olympic water polo draws to be made in Beijing today
Beijing, China (March 22).—
The official draws for the 2008 Olympic Games water polo tournaments will be made here today. Details when they come to hand.