Gwangju, South Korea.— Hungary created history with a thunderous 64-0 victory over Korea on the opening day of the FINA World Championship women's water polo tournament at the Nambu University Grounds in Gwangju.

In Group A action, probably the two best teams in the world had swimaway victories with European champion Netherlands running riot over South Africa 33-0. Simone van der Kraats nailed seven goals for the Dutch. The reigning champion United States of America had the better of New Zealand 22-3 and Stephania Haralabidis was the leading scorer with five.

Group B started with Russia in superb form, creating opportunities all over the pool and most of its players finding the net, defeating Canada 18-10. Then came the world-record-beating 64-0 victory by Hungary over FINA newcomer Korea. A large crowd, a huge media presence and plenty of noise surrounded every Korean players' movements.

The two high-scoring matches are also two of the three biggest in FINA World Championship history. The Hungarian win was the biggest while the next biggest was Croatia men's 38-1 victory over New Zealand at Rome in 1994. The Dutch win is the third biggest ahead of another match from 1994 — Australia beating New Zealand men 28-4.

Group C brought us back down to earth with Kazakhstan coming from two behind to beat Cuba 9-6 and Spain almost giving a lesson to Greece, winning by an unaccustomed 14-4. Rosa Tarrago was the undoubted star with six goals, four from the first period where Spain grabbed the match by the throat with a 6-1 advantage.

Group D provided two exciting encounters with China coming back from 3-4 to win 8-6, the final goal coming four minutes from time. Then Italy blasted a 3-0 opening quarter against Australia, rising to 6-2 at halftime and having to fight off the determined Aussie Stingers for a scintillating and heart-stopping 10-9 victory.

Progress points:

Group A: Netherlands 2, USA 2, New Zealand 0, South Africa 0.

Group B: Hungary 2, Russia 2, Canada 0, Korea 0.

Group C: Spain 2, Kazakhstan 2, Greece 0, Cuba 0.

Group D: China 2, Italy 2, Australia 0, Japan 0.

Sunday schedule:

Match 1, 08:30, Group A, SOUTH AFRICA 0 NETHERLANDS 33

Match 2, 9.50, Group A, NEW ZEALAND 3 UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 22

Match 3, 11:10, Group B, CANADA 10 RUSSIA 18

Match 4, 12:30, Group B, HUNGARY 64 KOREA 0

Match 5, 16:30, Group C, CUBA 6 KAZAKHSTAN 9

Match 6 17:50, Group C, GREECE 4 SPAIN 14

Match 7, 19:10, Group D, JAPAN 6 CHINA 8

Match 8, 20:30, Group D, ITALY 10 AUSTRALIA 9