Russell McKinnon, FINA Media Committee

Belgrade, Serbia, August 9.— Host nation Serbia rattled off an 11-2 victory over previously unbeaten Australia to surge into the quarter-finals of the FINA Junior Men’s World Championships at the Sports Centre Milan Gale Muskatirovic here.

It gains a rest day as the eighth finals take place on Thursday to see who will advance to the top eight. The other Group C match was between China and New Zealand with the Asian side finishing 11-7 ahead and taking third in the group.

Group A was settled before the 40C heat arrived when Russia beat Iran 22-6 with Timur Shaikhutdinov beating the goalkeeper six times and United States of America sent off Iran 15-3. Hannes Daube scored five goals for the victor. With Greece having a rest day, USA slipped into second place with Russia third.

In Group B it was exasperation for Japan once more, losing to Montenegro 18-17 at the death after leading for much of the match and allowing the Europeans to score the last two goals inside the final four minutes.It means Japan is winless after scoring 50 goals and providing some of the most exciting water polo in Belgrade. Croatia wrapped up the group in the next match, defeating Netherlands 11-3, mainly with strong first and third periods.

Group C was won by Hungary, defeating Canada 17-6 after leading 10-0 at halftime. There were 14 scorers in the match as Canada claimed third place and stays in the top group while Hungary has a day's rest in preparation for the quarter-finals. Italy took second place with a 21-3 win against South Africa in the final match of the day.

Final points:
Group A: Greece 7, USA 6, Russia 5, Iran 2, Puerto Rico 0.
Group B: Croatia 8, Spain 6, Montenegro 4, Netherlands 2, Japan 0.
Group C: Serbia 8, Australia 6, China 4, Argentina 2, New Zealand 0.
Group D: Hungary 8, Italy 6, Canada 4, Egypt 2, South Africa 0. 

Match schedule:
Match 33. 09:00, Group A, PUERTO RICO 6 RUSSIA 22
Match 34, 10:20, Group A, UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 15 IRAN 3
Match 35, 11:40, Group B, JAPAN 17 MONTENEGRO 18
Match 36. 13:00, Group B, NETHERLANDS 3 CROATIA 11
Match 38, 16:40, Group C, NEW ZEALAND 7 CHINA 11
Match 37. 18:00, Group C, SERBIA 11 AUSTRALIA 2
Match 39. 19:20, Group D, CANADA 6 HUNGARY 17
Match 40. 20:40, Group D, ITALY 21 SOUTH AFRICA 3

Day 6 programme:
Classification 13-20:
Match 41. 09:00, 4A IRI -5D RSA
Match 42. 10:20, 4B NED -5C NZL
Match 43. 11:40, 5A PUR -4D EGY
Match 44. 13:00, 5B JPN -4C ARG
Classification 1-12:
Match 45. 16:40, 2A USA -3D CAN
Match 46. 18:00, 2B ESP -3C CHN
Match 47. 19:20, 3A RUS -2D ITA
Match 48. 20:40, 3B MNE - 2C AUS