Water polo players start Olympics with defeat | Olympics

sport">Sabrina van der Sloot, Maud Megens, Ilse Koolhaas and Simone van de Kraats all scored twice, the other hits came from Iris Wolves, Nomi Stomphorst, Kitty Lynn Joustra and Maartje Keuning.

sport">The water polosters took a 3-1 lead against Australia in the first quarter, but also relinquished it. In the second period, the Orange ran out to 8-4. Havenga’s volatile team, however, collapsed again, allowed Australia to come back to 10-10 and completely handed over the game in the last period.

sport">“We started strong and ended badly,” Havenga said. “I have some trouble with losing anyway, but the way we gave it away in the second half is very annoying. We conceded goals too easily, also from a distance. Debby can also do better than she has shown today,” said the national coach, referring to goalkeeper Debby Willemsz.

sport">The Dutch women won Olympic gold at the Beijing 2008 Games, but they were unable to qualify for London 2012 and Rio 2016. It also took the Havenga team trouble to make it to Tokyo. Only at the last qualifying tournament, at the beginning of this year in the Italian city of Trieste, we managed to get a ticket.

sport">Havenga wants to compete with his team in the Japanese capital for the medals. Spain, Wednesday’s second opponent, is the toughest opponent in group A on paper. The Orange then also plays against South Africa (Friday) and Canada (Sunday). Four of the five countries advance to the quarter-finals. It is especially important for the Orange to avoid the United States, winner of the gold in 2012 and 2016, as long as possible. “There are four strong countries in our group and four in the other group. We’re going to cross paths at a certain point and then it really starts,” says Havenga.

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