Athletes of the Russian national water polo team told the details of the victory at the World Cup

The athletes of the Russian women's national water polo team, who defeated the Chinese team in the World Cup Final of the second division teams in Malta, told the details of the final battle on April 28, noting that they won after they disobeyed the coach's instructions.

At the beginning of the event, the head coach of the team, Sergey Markoch, presented the head of the department, Mikhail Degtyarev, with the winning ball, which our athletes sent into the opponents' goal in an unexpected way, so that he handed it over to the Sports museum. Water polo player Diana Khamraeva said that Chinese women are very strong and technical competitors.

"With the last four seconds left, our coach took a timeout and told the players what to do. But in the end, some improvisation happened, and the corner of the goal turned out to be empty, where Daria Savchenko scored the winning goal. We were incredibly happy that there would be no penalty shootout," she shared.

Daria Savchenko confirmed that coach Sergey Markoch had indeed given a different instruction — to pass.

"But I saw that three people had just come out at the captain, and I decided to shoot, and I scored. (Laughs.) Initially, it was very exciting, it was the first time they were allowed after such a break. Then we saw how many fans came to the match in Malta — even tears came out when the anthem was played. It was a pleasure," said the athlete.

According to the head of the Ministry of Sports, this precedent of allowing Russians to participate in international competitions with their anthem and flag should be a good sign for the future for other sports federations.

"I want to congratulate you on the great work on admitting teams under the national flag, it was a very difficult path — with negotiations," Degtyarev said.

The athletes added that they were incredibly proud to become the first team to compete with the Russian flag for their Homeland. Before every game, they felt the support of the crowded stands of fans in Malta and treated any opponent with respect, not knowing what to expect from one team or another.

"We have shown that we continue to be one of the best teams in the world. In the game against the Chinese national team, which is coached by a good coach, he prepared it, it was very interesting to play with them, we still achieved a positive result. In honor of our team's victory at the international level, which allowed it to enter the elite of the world water polo, we want to give you a ball from our team that flew into the opponents' goal in the last seconds," said Markoch, handing the projectile to Degtyarev.

Beautiful polo: the Russian women's national team will play at the World Cup with a flag and anthem

Our water polo players will start in the second division with matches against Argentina, Germany and South Africa.

On April 26, the Russian women's national water polo team beat China and won the World Cup final among the second division teams with a score of 18:17. The tournament was the first for Russians after they were admitted to international competitions with national symbols.

On April 28, Markoch added to Izvestia that for the first time since 2022, Russian water polo players competed under the country's flag at an international tournament, won the World Cup in the second division and secured their participation in the superfinal. The coach noted that the Russian national team successfully opposed the world champions who participated in the Olympic Games.