Great Britain's women round out historic 2024 with fourth at World Cup
Great Britain’s senior women rounded out their historic 2024 with fourth place in Division 2 of the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup.
The 14-strong squad came away from Hungary with three victories and two defeats as they narrowly missed out on a medal and a place at next year’s World Cup Super Final.
In their first tournament under new head coach, Theo Nousios, there were promising signs from a squad that blended those that competed at the European and World Championships alongside some promising talents from the GB junior teams.
They opened up the competitions with back-to-back victories to top Group B and secure a spot in the quarter-finals.
First up was Bulgaria, who replaced Kazakhstan in the competition, with GB coming away with a dominant 29-4 victory.
Great Britain were relentless throughout, racing into an early 6-0 advantage before claiming their seventh goal before the end of the opening quarter. They pressed on to move into a comprehensive 15-2 lead by the halftime, led by a player of the match performance from Toula Falvey.
The forward took her total to six for the game in the third after a short drive to two metres and firing past the Bulgarian keeper. Katy Cutler and Izzy Howe weren’t far off Falvey’s total with five apiece. Three of Cutler’s five came in the final period as GB extended their advantage to 25 as 11 of the 14 British squad got on the scoresheet.
They followed that up on day two where two stars of Great Britain’s U19 European Championships campaign took centre stage.
Amelie Perkins and Harriet Dickens led the scoring with a hat trick each as Britain sealed top spot in the group with a 14-8 win against hosts Turkiye.
After a strong first half, Turkiye fought back in the third to briefly snatch the lead before three unanswered goals courtesy of Howe, Cutler and Perkins put GB back in control.
Perkins was at it again in the fourth, grabbing two inside the opening 90 seconds to extend the lead to four and put the game beyond the reach of the hosts.
Dickens scored two of her goals late on as Great Britain went on to win the final period 5-1 and put them in a confident mood ahead of the quarter-finals.
Youngsters impress
In the last eight, Britain were once again rampant to defeat Czechia 22-4.
The youngsters once again impressed going forward as Perkins, Dickens and Lucy Blenkinship combined for 12 of the team’s total.
But it was Jade Smith in goal that won player of the match after a sensational display with a 75% save percentage. She stopped 12 of her opponents 16 shots, including three in the opening quarter as GB came out of the blocks with a 6-1 lead after the opening eight minutes.
The second half showed how good the British team were, keeping Czechia to just the one goal and cruising home 6-0 in the fourth.
The win set up Great Britain for a semi-final showdown with Japan – who finished ninth at the Tokyo Olympic Games.
And Nousios’ side pushed them all the way, but Japan’s strong start gave them enough of a gap to cling on to a narrow 15-12 win.
The 2023 Asian Games runners-up stormed into a 5-2 lead after the opening quarter and held off a late GB fightback to seal the win late on.
After an even end to the first half, Great Britain cut the deficit to a single goal early in the fourth after Falvey muscled in an early goal to start the final period.
Japan’s Yumi Arima and Akari Inaba pushed the lead back out to three with Annie Clapperton – her third of the match – and Katie Brown grabbing late consolation goals in the 15-12 defeat to the eventual champions.
Events on the final day just didn’t go Great Britain’s way as they later rounded out their competition with a last gasp defeat to Germany in the bronze medal match.
The Germans were in control for the most part but GB stayed in the match and when Dickens nailed two penalties inside a minute to open the third period, they were within in one at 8-7 at the end of the third.
Germany opened the final eight minutes with two quick goals but Brown fired in two of her own before Falvey levelled match at 11-11 with 1:16 left on the clock.
Germany called a timeout and Ira Deike scored what proved to be the winner with just 24 seconds remaining. Captain Kathy Rogers fired in a late shot that rattled the top-right corner but the flurry of arms made sure Germany came up with the ball and secured third place.
You can catch up on all the results and scorers at the World Aquatics Water Polo World Cup here and each of the matches are also available to watch back on Eurovision Sport.
