Water Polo Pan Pacs crucial to Aussie Olympic hopes
The Water Polo Pan Pacs are crucial to the Aussie Stingers chances of returning to the Olympic podium
The London Olympic Games may still be seven months away but the Water Polo Pan Pacs starting at Melbourne’s Sports and Aquatic Centre on Sunday will have an enormous baring on the chances of the Aussie Stingers women’s team.
The tournament, the biggest in Australia since the 2007 FINA World Championships that were also held in Melbourne, features teams from the USA, China, Canada, Japan, Brazil, New Zealand and the Australian Barbarians as well as the Stingers in the women’s field and the Aussie Sharks in the men’s draw.
A confidence boosting tournament win in front of a home crowd will go a long way to ensuring the Stingers get to London in the frame of mind required to emulate the Australian women’s team from the Sydney 2000 Olympic Games and claim gold.
But while the Stingers will be doing everything they can as a team to work towards a Pan Pac victory they are also competing against each other for the right to one of the 13 spots on the plane to London.
Currently with a squad of 19 – 13 who will play for the Stingers at the Pan Pacs and a further six that will play for the Australian Barbarians – the tournament will act as the most important Olympic trial of their collective lives.
Soon after the Pan Pacs the squad will be trimmed to 16 with the final cut before the squad leaves for the Olympics that commence on July 27.
Australia’s player of the tournament at the 2011 FINA World Championships, Melbournite Rowie Webster, said it was a dream to be able to play such an important tournament in home waters.
“I train at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre every day so to be able to play a tournament of this calibre in front of my parents, friends and the rest of my family is a dream come true,” Webster said.
Dual Olympian and Stingers team captain, Queenslander Kate Gynther, said the Pan Pacs was the ideal chance for players to stake their claims in the battle for Olympic selection.
“We’re still a squad of 19 and we’ve got a really strong squad,” Gynther said.
“All 19 players will get an opportunity to play here at Pan Pacs, whether its for the Stingers or the Barbarians team, so it’s a great opportunity for everyone to press for selection.”
Regardless of who makes the final cut there is little doubt every member of the squad is inspired by the last second gold medal victory at Sydney 2000.
Current vice captain and Beijing Olympic bronze medallist, Western Australian Gemma Beadsworth, said she thought about that golden Sydney moment often and dreamt of emulating the feat.
“I’ll never get that image out of my head,” Beadsworth said.
“I was 12 when I saw that and it definitely inspired me to get to where I am right now.
“If we could replicate a moment like that, although I think it would scare everyone watching, but if we won in London that would be incredible.”
The Water Polo Pan Pacs begin at the Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre on Sunday January 8 and continue all week with the medal matches on Saturday January 14.
Tickets are still available at the door.
For more info on the tournament and full match schedules go to www.waterpolopanpacs.com.
For more info on the players in this release go to www.australianwaterpolo.com.au.
