The Belarus club RCOP (Minsk) won the first place at the 4th “Lviv Open Water Polo Cup”, held in the Ukrainian city Lviv.
Six teams from five countries took part in the tournament. Home team Dynamo Lviv clinched the silver medal. CSM Corona (Brasov, Romania) took the 3rd place. Zaibas from the city Elektrenai (Lithuania) finished 4th, Polish club LSTW Ocmer (Lodz) ended the tournament in 5th place, while LUFK (Lviv) took the last place
The “Lviv Open Water Polo Cup” was played by a round-robin system. RCOP Minsk clinched the gold medal by beating all five rivals.
A goal-difference decided the battle for the second place. After a very thrilling encounter in the last round, Dynamo and Corona shared the points – 8:8 and finished the tournament with 10 points each. Dynamo took the silver medal because it achieved a better goal difference.
Artem Dikhtarenko (RCOP) was voted the best player of the tournament. Konstantin Kovalevski (Zaibas) was the best goalkeeper. Igor Kachedzhi (Dynamo) was awarded as the best defender, while Jank Petru (Corona) received the prize for the best attacker.
Anton Nikulin, the chief of the department for youth and sport in the government of the city of Lviv, was very satisfied after the tournament:
-The organization of the competition has traditionally been on a high level, so I can only congratulate the organizers. At the Lviv Open Cup, we again saw an interesting sports battle, good media coverage, and a sufficient number of fans in the stands. This tournament is one of the best in organizational terms, compared to other sports tournaments that also take place under the name “Open Cups of Lviv.
Sergey Frolov, RCOP head coach, also told that the tournament had been organized well and added:
-We came to Lviv for the third time. Our club won the 1st place for the second time, and once we finished 2nd. We could have played a little bit better, but winning the first place is always a pleasure. We will be glad to come here again.
The games played in Lviv were live-streamed on the Total Waterpolo’s Facebook page.
The fourth “Open Water Polo Cup” was a part of the International Carpathian League, in which RCOP, Dynamo, Zaibas and Ocmer took part. The tournament in Lviv was the last one in this season. RCOP won the title in the Carpathian League, too, ahead of Dynamo, Zaibas and Ocmer.
4th Lviv Open Cup
1st round
RCOP Minsk- CSM Corona 12:5 (1:2, 3:2, 4:1, 4:0)
Ocmer LSTW – Dynamo Lviv 4:18 (2:2, 0:6, 1:5, 1:5)
Zaibas- KZ LOR LUFK 25:7 (6:2, 8:1, 7:0, 4:4)
2nd round
Zaibas- CSM Corona 11:14 (3:2, 5:2, 2:5, 1:5)
Ocmer LSTW – RCOP Minsk 8:19 (1:2, 1:5, 4:6, 2:7)
Dynamo Lviv – KZ LOR LUFK 19:2 (6:0, 3:0, 4:1, 6:1)
3rd round
Ocmer LSTW – CSM Corona 15:16 (3:5, 9:5, 2:3, 1:3)
Zaibas- Dynamo Lviv 10:12 (4:4, 1:2, 4:4, 1:3)
RCOP Minsk- KZ LOR LUFK 24:3 (6:0, 3:0, 4:1, 6:1)
4th round
Zaibas – Ocmer LSTW 10:4 (5:1, 3:1, 1:1, 1:1)
Dynamo Lviv – RCOP Minsk 11:12 (1:2, 3:4, 4:2, 3:4)
CSM Corona – KZ LOR LUFK 15:3 (4:0, 5:1, 2:2, 4:0)
5th round
Ocmer LSTW – KZ LOR LUFK 20:4 (7:0, 5:2, 3:2, 5:0)
RCOP Minsk- Zaibas 16:11 (2:0, 4:1, 5:5, 5:5)
CSM Corona- Dynamo Lviv 8:8 (4:1, 0:5, 2:2, 2:0)
1 RCOP Minsk (Belarus) 15
2 Dynamo Lviv (Ukraine) 10
3 CSM Corona (Romania) 10
4 Zaibas Elektrenai (Lithuania) 6
5 Ocmer LSTW (Poland) 3
6 KZOR LUFK (Ukraine) 0
The final ranking of the Carpatian League
1 RCOP Minsk 12 matches – 35 points
2 Dynamo Lviv 12 – 25
3 Zaibas Elektrenai 12-7
4 Ocmer LSTW 12-5
