OLYMPICS LONDON 2012: Proud Brits crash out of Games

By Sean-Paul Doran, Sportsbeat, London 2012

GREAT Britain men’s water polo coach Cristian Iordache insists he is proud of his players despite falling to a fourth consecutive London 2012 defeat.

GREAT EXPERIENCE: Team GB received the worst possible group draw, facing the three medallists from Beijing

Team GB, who sit bottom of Group B, cannot qualify for the quarter-finals following an inevitable 17-6 defeat to Hungary – as the Brits struggled to contain a side that have won the last three Olympic titles.

And Iordache believes that the Olympics have been great experience for his young side as they continue to find their feet at international level.

“I'm very proud of my players,” said the Romanian-born coach, who had marked London 2012 as a learning curve for Team GB, the youngest in the competition.

“We have delivered what we promised - that we will keep fighting and keep up with the top teams. I have enjoyed this tournament so much together with my players and it was a great experience”

Hungary secured only their second win of London 2012 with their convincing win over the Brits and their experience and tactical superiority proved too much for Iordache’s side to handle.

Team GB, face Montenegro on Monday in their final group game and the teams in fourth, fifth and sixth in the two groups then face a series of classification matches to determine places 7 to 12.

And Adam Scholefield, who scored Team GB’s first goal of the game, admitted that his teammates were aware of the size of the challenge facing them after being drawn in the same group as the top four sides from Beijing.

He said: “We knew we weren't progressing from the day we got here. Six years ago we'd have lost by 30 goals. They're top teams, it's really hard to keep fighting.”

And the 26-year-old centre forward bemoaned his side’s wastefulness in front of goal against a team that had been tipped as medal hopefuls once again, but now face a fight to qualify in their last game.

“We started well, but they're a class outfit. In the last game we made mistakes, but today we came out well. The end of today's game was frustrating. We made some basic errors,” he added.

© Sportsbeat 2012