Defending Olympic champion Hungary won a semifinal berth following the conclusion of preliminaries in men's water polo?Monday with an unbeaten record.
Hungary beat winless Canada 12-3 on Monday, ending its preliminaries with four wins and one tie, going straight to the semifinals as No. 1 in Group A.
"Only Hungary remains unbeaten in this tournament. We have been unbeaten for eight years now, so our team is used to it," head coach Denes Kemeny said.
Hungary will have three days off before their semifinal on Friday while winless Canada will compete in the 7th-12th classification round. "We get three days off, so we will go out tonight," Kemeny said.
European champions Montenegro scraped into the quarterfinal after a draw against a spirited Australia.
Montenegro led 2-1 at the quarter and 5-4 in the final period only to see Australia level it with less then three minutes to the end. It was a thrilling encounter, but Australia has been assigned to the 7th-12th classification rounds with two wins, two losses and a draw.
Spain ranked second in Group A and Greece and Canada ranked fifth and fourth.
The United States topped Group B with world champion Croatia ranking second. Both teams have eight points after five games, but the United States got the top place with a win over Croatia last Saturday.
Serbia, Germany and Italy ranked third, fourth and fifth in Group B. Host China ranked last in the Group with winless record.
On Wednesday, China, Greece, Canada and Italy will fight in the 7th-12th quarterfinals and Montenegro, Croatia, Spain and Serbia will fight in the 1st-6th quarterfinals.
(Xinhua News Agency August 18, 2008)