Japan Wins 2022 Asian Water Polo Championship; China & Kazakhstan to Worlds

2022 Asian Water Polo Championships – Men

  • November 7-14, 2022
  • Assumption University Aquatic Center, Samut Prakan, Thailand
  • Full match replays

2022 marked the first time since 2016 that the Asian Swimming Federation as a standalone event. The event has historically been held on an ad hoc basis when there is no Asian Games or other multi-sport championship available to select teams for upcoming Olympic Games or World Championship events.

The 2022 event is the continent’s opportunity to lock in qualifiers for the World Championships. The top two finishers from this tournament, plus the host of the World Championships Japan, were due to automatically-advance to Worlds.

Japan wound up winning the tournament held last week in Thailand, beating out China for gold. Because Japan is the host of the World Championships and receive an automatic qualification, that opened up a spot for 3rd-place finishers Kazakhstan to advance as well.

Japan and Kazakhstan represented Asia at the 2012 World Championships as well, placing 9th and 14th, respectively.

With no Asian teams in the top 4 of last year’s World Championships, or in the top 2 of last year’s World League, those three teams are likely to be Asia’s only representatives in Fukuoka next summer amid a 16-team field.

The 10 participating nations is the largest-ever field for a standalone Asian Championship for men or women.

Results

Preliminary Round

Group A

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1  Iran 4 4 0 0 62 25 +37 8
2  Kazakhstan 4 3 0 1 48 24 +24 6
3  South Korea 4 2 0 2 45 35 +10 4
4  Thailand 4 0 1 3 27 57 −30 1
5  India 4 0 1 3 22 63 −41 1

Group B

Pos Team Pld W D L GF GA GD Pts
1  Japan 4 4 0 0 79 23 +56 8
2  China 4 3 0 1 82 24 +58 6
3  Singapore 4 2 0 2 48 66 −18 4
4  Hong Kong 4 1 0 3 25 75 −50 2
5  Kuwait 4 0 0 4 27 73 −46 0

Knockout Round

Final Ranking

  1. Japan
  2. China
  3. Kazakhstan
  4. Iran
  5. South Korea
  6. Singapore
  7. Thailand
  8. Hong Kong
  9. India
  10. Kuwait

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About Braden Keith

Braden Keith

Braden Keith is the Editor-in-Chief and a co-founder/co-owner of SwimSwam.com. He first got his feet wet by building The Swimmers' Circle beginning in January 2010, and now comes to SwimSwam to use that experience and help build a new leader in the sport of swimming. Aside from his life on the InterWet, …

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