Olympic berths beckoning

Sydney University has five players in the 13-strong Australian squad to contest the Women’s Water Polo World League tournament in the US from February 16-21.

Isobel Bishop, Keesja Gofers, Bronte Halligan, Hannah Buckling and Lea Yanitsas have been included in the squad, taking them one step closer to the final squad for the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.

With teams from Brazil, China, Canada, Japan and the US taking part in the World League tournament, Australian coach Greg McFadden said it will be an important international test leading into the Rio Games.

“We don’t get many international games so this will be a significant one for us as part of our Rio preparation,” the coach said.

“The USA and Canada are yet to qualify for Rio and have their Olympic qualification tournament coming up, so you can bet they will be coming out strong.”

Australia, Brazil, China and Hungary have all qualified their spots for the Rio Olympic Games. 

The five Sydney University players were members of the Australian squad that completed a white-wash in a three-Test series against China, played in Perth in recent days.

The Stingers won the first match 14-9, the second match 10-5 and made it a clean-sweep with a 13-10 result in the third game.