WA women bag gold in thrilling final

WA and NSW struck gold in the Australian Country Water Polo Championships at the Karratha Leisureplex on Saturday.

This year's championships featured eight teams representing WA, NSW, Queensland and the Australian Defence Force.

WA collected the women's gold medal match, in an absolute nailbiter against a strong Queensland side.

The match was tied at one, two and three in the first quarter and then four in the second period before Queensland went one up at the long break.

However, Queensland squandered a 6-4 lead early in the third period before losing 10-8 to the undefeated WA team.

Local Karratha players Anouska Angove and Kate Kalajzich did their hometown proud but the standout player in the final was undoubtedly Bunbury veteran Kylie English, the former World Cup champion and Australian captain.

Amanda Russell, the driving force for the Queenslanders, was named the tournament MVP after an aggressive final and her week-long effort.

In the women's bronze-medal final, the NSW/WA Composite team beat the Australian Defence Force 20-5. Composite captain Jackie Morrison's hat-trick in the opening quarter helped her to five for the match and Karratha's Alex Dobbin scored three goals for the winning Composite side.

The undefeated NSW men's side smashed WA in the gold medal play-off 20-9.

NSW had the match in hand at half-time with a 9-3 margin and shot out to 20-9 with four of WA's goals coming in the final quarter.

Karratha stars Justin Angove and Nigel Kroonstuiver both had a strong performance for WA, however it was not enough to catch up to an unbeatable NSW side.

NSW player Daniel Robinson scored nine goals, a tournament high, and finished as the leading scorer for the week with a tally of 37.

Tournament MVP Daniel Lawrence also scored five goals for the winning side.

The men's bronze medal went to ADF 10-8 over WA Gold, in a match that had WA coming back to level several times in the final quarter.

WA led at the quarter 2-0, but ADF had the 4-3 half-time lead and 6-5 at the final break.

WA levelled at 6-6 and 8-8 at 3min. 18secremaining, but in the end just missed out on the bronze after two quick goals put ADF in the lead before the final whistle.

The KWPA will host the WA State Country Water Polo Championships in March 2016.