MEN'S WATER POLO ROUNDUP

updated 3:13 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - Hungary extended its dominance of Olympic water polo Sunday, winning an eighth gold medal after rallying to beat Serbia-Montenegro 8-7 in the final.

Russia, the silver medalist at Sydney in 2000, beat Greece 6-5 for the bronze.

The United States upset Italy 9-8 behind three goals apiece from Tony Azevedo and Jesse Smith for seventh place.

In the title game, left-handed shooter Gergely Kiss scored four goals and Tamas Kasas had two for the defending world and Olympic champions.

Aleksandar Sapic, the tournament’s leading scorer with 18 goals, got the ball with a chance to tie it in the closing seconds, but didn’t get a shot off in time. The Serbians led 3-0 after three minutes and took a 7-5 lead into the last period.

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“It’s just an incredible feeling. It was very difficult to come back,” said Kasas, one of nine dual Olympic champions in the team. “At some point, it was a dead match. We were almost broken.”

“In eight years, we’ve had 11 finals and won nine, that’s not a bad percentage,” Hungarian coach Denes Kemeny said. “It’s the fourth time in six years they’ve had to come back to beat (Serbia-Montenegro). It must be something they’ve got inside.”

Unbeaten in Athens, the Hungarians became the first team to win back-to-back Olympic titles since Yugoslavia — now Serbia-Montenegro — beat the United States in consecutive finals in 1984 and 1988.

The win in 2000 was Hungary’s first since 1976.

“Sydney was important because it was the first in 24 years,” Kemeny said. “This is important, too, because it’s after just four years.”

Hungary has 14 Olympic medals in water polo since 1928, including three silver and three bronze.

The Serbians didn’t score in the last 13 minutes.

“We had the gold in our hands and we lost it,” said Sapic. “We didn’t take the big chances.”

Revaz Chomakhidze scored four goals in Russia’s win for the bronze.

The United States’ win over an Italian team that finished second in the world championships provided an uplifting ending for the Americans, who were in a tough bracket.

“Winning that was totally important,” Azevedo said. “The whole time, we’ve been saying the top three in our bracket are the three that are going to get the medals. This shows we could have been playing for a medal if we’d started in the other bracket.”

In other games, Heiko Nossek scored twice to lead Germany to a 6-4 victory over Spain for fifth place.

Australia edged Croatia 8-7 in the playoff for ninth place, with Thomas Whalan scoring five goals.

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