SINGAPORE – The 2nd Asian University Water Polo Championships concluded on June 19th, with the Bronze and Gold Medal Playoffs.
The Bronze medal playoffs were between National University of Singapore (NUS) and the team put together by the Malaysia University Sports Council. NUS had initially won over Malaysia in the previous match, and this playoff gave Malaysia a second chance to change the outcome. However, NUS’s aggressiveness to control the game paid off as they left their opponent with no opportunities of breakthrough till the third quarter. Malaysia put up their best fight to equalize the score but time was not on their side, and NUS won the game 8 – 3 to emerge as the 2nd runner ups in the championships!
The most exciting match of the tournament had to be the Gold Medal playoffs between Korea National Sports University and Universitas Negri Jakarta from Indonesia. Both teams had shown great skills, talent and stamina throughout the tournament, and their second encounter with each other was definitely highly anticipated. The first quarter had the Koreans fast and furious to get a goal, but the Indonesians took the lead instead by scoring the first goal! With the gold medal at stake, Korea took no chance and scored three goals in the same quarter. The next two quarters saw both teams pushing each other to the edge as both teams scored the same number of goals per quarter. The last quarter proved to be the deciding period where Korea sped through the game, with a 4 goal lead and emerging as Champions of the tournament.
With the end of the competition, the Championship was closed with a simple ceremony attended by Guest-of-Honour, Dr Bervyn Lee, Deputy Chief, Strategic Development and Marketing Group, Singapore Sports Council, Ms Laura Yan, General Coordinator from the Asian University Sports Federation, representatives from the Singapore Swimming Association, Singapore University Sports Council and National University of Singapore. Besides the team victory ceremony, individual awards were also presented to the following winners:
Top Scorer: Yun Youngwwan, Korea
Top Goalkeeper: Lee Sanghyup, Korea
Most Valuable Player: Koh Jian Ying, NUS
The organizing committee also presented each team with a token of appreciation. The ceremony was also made significant by the handover gesture of the AUSF flag to Korea National Sports University who has volunteered to host the next AUWP in 2014.
(Source: Mahrunisa Fathiyah, OC)
