Korea sinks out of medal contention in Asiad water polo

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Published: 05 Oct. 2023, 19:08 Updated: 02 Jan. 2024, 15:10

Korea sinks out of medal contention in Asiad water polo

Korea's Kim Chan-soo plays during a preliminary water polo match against China on Tuesday at the Hangzhou Asian Games. [REUTERS/YONHAP]

Korea is out of the medal pool in the men’s water polo tournament after losing the quarterfinal match against Kazakhstan 15-8 on Thursday at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

They will still have to play additional classification matches to determine the rankings among the teams who did not qualify for the semifinal round.

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A game of water polo is played with two teams of seven players — six in the “field” and one goalie. The aim is to score the most points by getting the ball into the opposing team’s goal but players, with the exception of the goalie, can only use one hand.

Players also cannot touch the bottom of the pool and must tread water for the entire duration of play, again with the exception of the goalie.

A game has four quarters, each eight minutes.

Kazakhstan outscored Korea across all four quarters on Wednesday, widening a two-point lead at the end of the first quarter to seven points by the end of the game.

Korea earlier lost the first two games of the tournament to Iran and China, respectively, but beat Thailand in the third and final game of the preliminary round on Wednesday to secure a quarterfinal spot.

The Korean women's water polo team earlier competed in a round robin tournament but lost every game.

The last time Korea medaled in water polo at the Asian Games was in 1990, beating Singapore to take bronze in the men's tournament. Korea has medaled one other time in the sport, taking silver in 1986 after losing the gold-medal match to China at the Games in Seoul.

BY MARY YANG [mary.yang@joongang.co.kr]