HANGZHOU, Oct. 3 (Xinhua) — Japan emerged victorious over event favorites Kazakhstan, who was thought-about Japan’s strongest competitor, within the males’s water polo group stage on the Hangzhou Asian Games on Tuesday.
The males’s competitors featured eight groups in two teams. China, Thailand, Iran, and South Korea have been in Group A, whereas favorites Kazakhstan and Japan have been in Group B, alongside Hong Kong, China, and Singapore.
Kazakhstan has dominated the boys’s occasion in latest editions of the Asian Games, whereas Japan has suffered losses in a number of gold medal matches because it gained its final Asiad gold in 1970.
However, Japan completed one place forward of Kazakhstan on the Tokyo Olympics and in addition ranked larger than Kazakhstan on the 2023 World Aquatics Championships in Fukuoka, making them a powerful contender for the Asian Games gold medal.
On Tuesday, their competitors was intense. Japan took an early lead within the first quarter, however Kazakhstan staged a powerful comeback earlier than Japan saved calm to triumph 15-13.