After advancing to the second round of competitions at the Canoe Polo World Championships in Welland, Canada, the canoe polo team from Iran continued showing great performance but suffered three narrow defeats on Thursday and Friday.
A total of 24 teams were put in six groups of four with the top two teams from each group (12 altogether) advancing to the next round finals, and the bottom teams striving to finish in the top-16 to guarantee a place at the 2020 World Championships, Mehr News Agency reported.
The major surprise in the tournament was the failure of the Swiss men’s team to progress to the top half of the draw as Switzerland finished fourth at the 2016 Championships.
In the 1st round of the competition, Iran was in the same group with Brazil, Britain and Switzerland. In the first match on August 1, the Iranians faced Switzerland and managed to come from behind and change the 1-3 loss with a 3-3 draw. Then, the team met Brazil and earned a significant 11-3 victory.
In the last group game, Iran edged past Britain 6-5 in a hard-fought match and made history by advancing to the next round for the first time.
In the 2nd round, the qualifying 12 teams competed in two groups of six.
Iran shares the new group with Australia, France, Spain, New Zealand and the Netherlands. The national canoe polo team faced Australia on Thursday and lost the match 7-6 with a last-second penalty.
On Friday, the Iranian squad had two other thrilling matches but lost both games to France and the Netherlands with the same nail-biting result of 4-5.
The top two teams from each group will go to the semifinal. The 3rd and 4th teams of each group will compete for 5-8 places and the last two will try their luck for 9-12 places.
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