Singapore’s water polo players are raring to take on the challenge of competing against the world’s best on home ground at the World Aquatics Championships – Singapore 2025 (WCH 2025) in July. Following the official team draw on Wednesday (7 May) in Budapest, Singapore will make its debut in the WCH men’s water polo event in Group C, where they will face reigning Olympic bronze medallists the USA as well as Brazil and Canada. The Singapore women’s team, who made their first WCH appearance at the previous edition in Doha last year, have been drawn in Group A with Olympic silver medallists Australia, Italy and New Zealand. The World Aquatics Championships – Singapore 2025 takes place from 11 July to 3 August. The draws are as follows.

Men’s draw
Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Serbia	Spain	United States	Croatia
Italy	Hungary	Brazil	Greece
Romania	Australia	Canada	Montenegro
South Africa	Japan	Singapore	China

Women’s draw
Group A	Group B	Group C	Group D
Australia	China	Croatia	Great Britain
Italy	Argentina	Greece	South Africa
Singapore	United States	Japan	France
New Zealand	Netherlands	Hungary	Spain

For Singapore’s Ranice Yap, who was top scorer at the Asian U-20 Water Polo Championships women’s event in March, playing on home soil also presents an opportunity for the sport to grow here. She said: “It’s an honour to represent Singapore at the World Aquatics Championships. We’re especially excited to compete on home ground, with our families and friends cheering us on from the stands. Playing on the world stage against some of the best teams globally will be a tremendous learning experience for our young team and will be an important component in our preparations for upcoming major competitions, including the SEA Games in December 2025. We also hope our journey inspires more girls to discover and take up the sport, and helps grow our women’s water polo community.”

Lee Kai Yang, who led the Singapore men’s team to a 28th SEA Games gold medal at the 2023 event, is similarly looking forward to the prospect of battling tough opponents at the OCBC Aquatic Centre. He said: “This will be the first time in our history that the Men’s National Team is competing at the World Championships. Representing Singapore is always an honour, but doing it on home ground is the icing on the cake. It’s a rare privilege, and we’re grateful for the chance to compete in front of our fellow Singaporeans. We know we’ll be coming up against some of the strongest teams in the world, but we’re ready to rise to the challenge. We’ll go into every match with determination, fight for every ball, and never give up. We want to make Singapore proud.”

National men’s water polo head coach Kan Aoyagi added: “Our goal is to compete with discipline and heart. The team is in good form, and WCH will be a real test of our growth. I’m looking forward to seeing how our younger players handle the big stage. Competing in front of a home crowd is a rare privilege, and it brings both pressure and pride. We’re ready to embrace both.”

The official team draw for the WCH 2025 men’s and women’s water polo tournaments took place at the World Aquatics interim office in Budapest, hosted by players Laura Ester Ramos of Spain and Filip Filipovic of Serbia. World Aquatics President Husain Al-Musallam and Singapore 2025 co-chair Mark Chay also gave welcome messages.

Croatia and the United States will begin their title defences in the men’s and women’s tournaments, respectively. The Croatian men arrive in Singapore off the back of a silver medal finish at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and are targeting their fourth world title, having previously won in Doha (2024), Budapest (2017), and Melbourne (2007).

The U.S. women, meanwhile, will look to bounce back from a fourth-place finish in Paris – where their quest for a fourth straight Olympic gold came to an end – and a disappointing World Cup campaign, in which they failed to qualify out of the Division 1 tournament to the final.

In other storylines, Serbia enters Singapore as the reigning Olympic champion in the men’s tournament, claiming gold at three consecutive Games. Spain, fresh from securing its first-ever Olympic gold medal in women’s water polo at Paris 2024, will aim to continue its momentum.

Croatia’s title defence begins in Group D, where they will face Greece, Montenegro, and China. In Group A, Serbia, the reigning Olympic champions, will face Italy, the four-time World Champions, along with Romania and South Africa. Spain, the 2025 Men’s Water Polo World Cup champions, aims to add an even larger trophy to their collection from Group B, where they will take on Hungary, the 2023 World Champions, as well as Australia and Japan. Hosts Singapore will compete in Group C against the USA, the bronze medallists from the Paris 2024 Olympics, along with Brazil and Canada.

The USA, the defending World Champions, was drawn in Group B for the tournament. In this group, they will face the 2023 World Champions from the Netherlands, the People’s Republic of China, and Argentina. Olympic champions Spain will compete in Group D, where they will battle against Great Britain, South Africa, and France. Olympic silver medalists Australia will begin their campaign in Group A, taking on Italy, New Zealand, and hosts Singapore. In Group C, Greece and Hungary, the gold and silver medalists from the Women’s Water Polo World Cup 2025 Final, will also compete against Japan and Croatia.

At the World Aquatics Championships – Singapore 2025, more than 2,500 athletes are expected to compete in 77 medal events across six aquatic sports – swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, diving, high diving and open water swimming. The World Aquatics Masters Championships, which typically follow the elite Championships, will take place concurrently this year for the first time. The event will feature five aquatic sports – swimming, artistic swimming, water polo, diving and open water swimming.

The World Aquatics Championships – Singapore 2025 runs from 11th July to 22nd August 2025. More information available here