Australia's women's water polo team suffered a heartbreaking loss in the dying seconds of their quarter-final at the World Aquatics Championships in Singapore.
The Aussie Stingers and Greece were locked at 7-7 with eight seconds left on Saturday, but Australia inexplicably turned over the ball and the Greeks swam towards the Aussie goal, shooting from outside to beat the buzzer, scoring with two seconds left.
There were never more than two goals separating the teams all game, and the Aussies seemed to have the momentum in the final quarter.
It was always going to be an emotion-charged game, the two sides having faced off in the quarter-finals at the Paris Olympics. Australia won that game and went on to claim the silver medal. But, like Australia, the Greeks have a new-look team and have already achieved strong results in this Olympic cycle.
Stingers captain and dual Olympian Bronte Halligan said the team were devastated they won't have the opportunity to play for a world championship medal.
"That's a really tough result. As Bec (Rippon, Stingers coach) said, quarter-final water polo you've got to stick it out right to the end and we did,'' Halligan said.
"The Greeks also did that, but we showed real heart out there and I couldn't be more proud of our girls.
"It's a tough loss and it's going to sting for a little bit, but the girls will hold their heads high knowing we did everything we could have.
"This is a stepping stone and we really want to build this squad, we have a lot more goals. I think it's exciting to see where we are going to go over the next few years during this Olympic cycle.''
Rippon echoed Halligan's sentiment, saying despite the disappointment of the loss there is a lot they can build on as they set their sights on LA 2028.
"We spoke about it before the game, that this is what we do all the hard work for, these big moments, and we go out there and leave everything we've got in the pool, and I think we did that tonight,'' Rippon said.
"It is a heartbreaking way to lose, but we did leave everything out there and I'm proud of the team.''
Australia now meet Japan in the classification matches on Monday.
