Germany’s water polo players caught a very difficult fate at the swimming world championships in Budapest (June 18 to July 3).
The representative of the German Swimming Association (DSV) meets in the preliminary round group B on the Olympic silver medalist Greece, the two-time world champion Croatia and the much improved selection of Japan.
The 16-nation tournament is the first title fight under the new national coach Petar Porobic from Montenegro, who took over the DSV team in October last year.
The group winners go directly to the quarter-finals of the knockout phase, while the second and third-placed teams have to play an intermediate crossover duel.
The DSV selection took eighth place in the 2019 title fights in Gwangju, South Korea, but then clearly missed qualifying for the Olympic Games in Tokyo. Germany’s women were last represented at a World Cup in Rome in 2009 and, as a disappointing eleventh place at the 2020 European Championship, are only spectators.