AUSF hosts inaugural Waterpolo Championship in Singapore

SINGAPORE – The 1st Asian University Waterpolo Championship is being organized in Singapore from July 8th to 14th. 159 students and officials from 7 competing countries, named Korea, Japan, Indonesia, Singapore, China, Pakistan, Uzbekistan took part in this championship organized by National University of Singapore and Singapore Swimming Association. It was also the second championship held in Singapore after the 1st Asian University Canoe Championship in 2009.

Dr. JargalsaikhanD, AUSF Assessor and FISU CIC member declared the championship open at the Opening Ceremony on July 9th.

As the competition started it was apparent that there was a big difference in standard between universities with a strong water polo playing tradition and those who have just started. Most of the scores of day 1 reflected big margins.

Day 2 of competition started with a very exciting game between Namangan National University and Peking University Founder Technology College. The exciting tit for tat scoring was reflected in the loud cheers of ooohs and aahs throughout the game. The score was 13 to 12 in favor of Peking University Founder Technology College. The following 3 games were one sided affairs though we could see the weaker teams trying their best to score their first goal. The final game of the day between Universitas Indonesia and National University of Singapore was a hard fought match as the teams exchanged leads a few times during the game. NUS finally prevailed 16-11 in a last quarter burst of energy.

The women’s games of day 3 were mostly one sided affairs with big score margins. The first men’s game was a hard fought match with PUFTC (China) eventually pulling away to win 12-6 over NTU (Singapore). The highlight of the afternoon went to the LUMS (Pakistan) vs. UI (Indonesia) game. The team from LUMS was the clear underdog trying its best to score a first goal of the tournament. They missed a few chances and were finally awarded a penalty in the 3rd quarter which they scored decisively. With belief that they could score, LUMS tried their best against the mostly superior UI players but most of their efforts were in vain. In the last 5 seconds of the game, LUMS gained possession of the ball pushed ahead and scored their very first field goal in the last second of their match. Everyone in the pool erupted in cheers for LUMS who gave a very spirited performance. The final game between KNSU (Korea) and NUS (Singapore) was greatly anticipated as the favorites were going against the hosting team. It was a very close match and KNSU managed to stay ahead of NUS to win 7-4.

The 4th day of competition consisted of only the men’s semi-final games to determine the 3rd to 8th positions in the men’s category. The first 2 games were generally one sided games as KNSU triumphed over PUFTC 17-6 to enter the finals to be played tomorrow. WU beat NUS 14-2 to meet KNSU in the finals tomorrow. The most exciting games of the day were the UI NTU game and the PUFTC-NTU games. Both were very closely fought games as teams tried their best to attain the higher position. Both the games were neck to neck and exchanged leads a few times throughout their games. In the end it was NTU who beat UI to emerge 5th over UI 6th with a score of 13-11. NUS, who were mostly trailing throughout the match fought very hard in the last 2 quarters to edge PUFTC 9-7 to clinch the overall bronze medal.

Today, 13th July, the championship will end after five days of competition. The Women’s team of Namangan National University (Uzbekistan) and Peking University Founder Technology College (China) will play for the gold. In the men’s competition the team of the Korean National Sport University KNSU will compete against the Waseda University of Japan.

(Source: Dr. Jargalsaikhan, AUSF with Carson Goh and Sean Tan, OC)