Water Polo: Kazakhstan athletes ranked second at Asian Championship

Kazakhstan men’s water polo national team lost on penalties to China’s team in the final match of the group stage of 9th Asian Swimming Championship, Vesti.kz reports. It was a sharp and tough match that ended with an even score of 8:8 in regular time. The teams scored one goal each during the overtime. Then China’s athletes won over Kazakhstan team on penalty shootout. Kazakhstan’s Rustam Ukumanov, the best shooter among Kazakhstan athletes according to the results of the tournament, got off on the wrong foot. He hit Chinese gates 14 times, but scored a goal only once. However, another Kazakhstan water polo athlete Sergey Gubarev was in great shape and scored 6 goals during the regular time. Yevgeny Medvedev and Murat Shakenov missed during penalty shoot-out and it resulted in the defeat of Kazakhstan team. As a result China became the champion of the 9th Asian Swimming Championship that was held in Dubai. Kazakhstan team won silver and Japan won bronze. Earlier on the same day Kazakhstan female national water polo team also lost the final match to China. Kazakhstan athletes started playing confidently and were 3:1 ahead of China by the end of the first quarter. However, China’s team managed to brace themselves and turn the match around. As the result the China’s team won with a score of 13:8.