Women's Water Polo World Cup: Setterosa beats Canada and flies to the Olympics

The painful embrace of Carlo Silipo to the goalkeeper coach Elena Giglijust like the tears of girls in the water, are more eloquent than a thousand words. The Setterosa on the sixth and last occasion he hits the target, beats Canada 18-12 and will be at the Paris Olympics accompanying the Settebello who will play the world final against Croatia tomorrow (3.30 pm live on Raisport TV). The match is worth seventh place in the world championship tournament but above all it is a deadly playoff against the North Americans to gain the final access to the French games. A coveted goal, desired but not at all taken for granted due to the quality of the competitors and the condition of the Italians that is not always excellent.

The feeling is that Setterosa's Neapolitan coach has never had much fear of failing to achieve his goal, but getting there in the most extreme way always involves a certain anxiety about performance. And instead the Italians in the pool today in Doha passed the test quite brilliantly. Basically there was only a game in the first period with Italy starting strong 4-1 and then reaching 4 all. Then he started hitting Bianconi hard, author of five, and the Canadians gradually dissolved. Decisive episode in the last period with the score of 14-10 was Bakoc's expulsion with the remaining 3 and a half minutes in numerical superiority.

The Paris Olympics represent a new experience for almost all of the Italian women: only Bianconi and Tabani have experienced moments of this level. «They have been a very intense two months – said Silipo -; we get there suffering but this could also be a positive element. They have come out of our limits which we will try to cure. Certainly the nightmare of failing to reach the goal of the Olympics did not allow us to express ourselves at our best and to play with that lightness that is always useful in order not to feel too much pressure. In any case, these girls have won two medals in international competitions and came fourth twice: a clear signal that they need to believe in themselves more.”