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(Beijing, March 18) On the opening day of the "Good Luck Beijing" 2008 Water Polo China Open held at Beijing's Ying Tung Natatorium, traditional powerhouses Australia and the United States clinched comfortable wins over China and Russia respectively in the women's preliminaries.
In the opening game between Australia and host China, except a 1-1 draw in the first period, Olympic champions Australia maintained its lead of three goals or more throughout the match, gaining the upper hand over China in both success rate of attacks and play-making. After the match, China's head coach Juan Jane Giralt admitted that the Chinese players still had a long way to go before catching up with their Australian counterparts.
The second match saw Russia being pitted against the 2000 Olympic runners-up the United States. The Russians led 6-3 after the second period but suffered unexpected setback in the rest of the game, losing by a wide margin of 15-9.
Judging by the first-day competitions, the gap between those traditionally strong teams and the second-string teams has been narrowed down, and the European teams headed by Russia is catching up with the world top teams. As a newcomer in the sport China, too, has made remarkable progress in recent years. Since women's water polo became an official Olympic event in 2000, more and more teams have come to the fore to vie for top honors of the sport.
The men's preliminaries of the 2008 Water Polo China Open will begin tomorrow.
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