updated 4:25 p.m. ET Aug. 29, 2004

ATHENS, Greece - The athletic competition at the Athens Summer Olympics came to a bizarre finish Sunday as Stefano Baldini of Italy took the lead two miles from the finish to win the gold medal and American Meb Keflezighi won silver Sunday in an Olympic marathon disrupted by a costumed intruder who grabbed the race leader with about three miles to go.

Vanderlei de Lima of Brazil, whose lead had been slowly shrinking, was pushed to the curb by a man dressed in green beret, red kilt and knee-high green socks. De Lima was able to get back into the race, but he lost several more seconds and eventually was overtaken by Baldini.

De Lima got the bronze, drawing big cheers from the crowd at the finish line in Panthinaiko Stadium — the beautiful marble structure that was the site of the first modern Olympics 108 years ago.

He smiled broadly, spread his arms like wings and weaved from side to side as he crossed the line.

David Gray / Reuters Italy's Stefano Baldini breaks the tape to win the men's marathon Sunday.

Keflezighi, who emigrated from the war-torn African nation of Eritrea at age 10, is the first American to medal in the men’s marathon since Frank Shorter’s silver in 1976 and gold in 1972. Deena Kastor won the bronze in the women’s marathon a week ago, marking the first time the United States had medaled in both of the sport’s epic endurance competition.

Boxing
Andre Ward of the United States won the gold medal in the light heavyweight division, beating Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus. Fighting in the last bout of the games, Ward found his mark with quick inside punches in the third round to win the first boxing gold for the United States since David Reid in 1996.

Ward, of Oakland, Calif., trailed after two rounds, but came on strong despite a swelling around his right eye that coaches worked on in the corner between rounds. He won the third round 7-2, then remained aggressive in the final round to widen his margin of victory to 20-13.

Ward’s medal was one of two for the U.S. team, which brought nine boxers to Athens. Earlier, middleweight Andre Dirrell won a bronze.

Alexander Povetkin of Russia won the gold medal in super heavyweight boxing when his opponent, Mohamed Aly of Egypt, was disqualified for failing a medical test. Aly got the silver. Roberto Cammarelle of Italy and Michel Lopez Nunez of Cuba shared the bronze.

Bakhtiyar Artayev of Kazakhstan won the welterweight gold medal, beating Lorenzo Aragon of Cuba 36-26. Kim Jung-joo of South Korea and Oleg Saitov of Russia shared the bronze.

Mario Kindelan of Cuba won the lightweight gold, defeating Amir Khan of Britain. Serik Yeleuov of Kazakhstan and Murat Khrachev of Russia shared the bronze.

Guillermo Rigondeaux of Cuba won the bantamweight title, beating Worapoj Petchkoom of Thailand. Bahodirjon Sooltonov of Uzbekistan and Aghasi Mammadov of Azerbaijan shared the bronze.

Yan Bhartelemy of Cuba won the gold in light flyweight, beating Atagun Yalcinkaya of Turkey. Sergey Kazakov of Russia and Zou Shimming of China shared the bronze.

Men’s Volleyball
Brazil backed up its No. 1 world ranking with a gold-medal finish to a near-perfect Olympics, beating rival Italy in four sets in the final.

Gilberto Godoy Filho had 20 points to lead the Brazilians. Brazil has been a major power in international competition over the past decade, but this was its first Olympic medal since a gold in 1992.

The Italians have been just about as good, but they’ve only managed a silver, bronze, and silver at the last three Olympics.

Russia overpowered a sluggish U.S. team in straight sets to win the bronze. Alexey Kuleshov had 16 points to lead the Russians to an easy sweep. The Americans played from behind almost the whole time, making poor hitting decisions that left them unable to get any of their spikes around the towering Russian triple block.

Men’s Water Polo
Hungary won its eighth Olympic water polo gold medal, scoring three unanswered goals in the last quarter to edge Serbia-Montenegro 8-7 in the final.

Gergeley 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, had a chance for an equalizer in the closing seconds but delayed his shot after hearing some whistles and ran out of time.

Hungarian coach Denes Kemeny ran along the side of the pool doing high knee lifts and then jumped fully clothed, into the pool to embrace his players.

Revaz Chomakhidze scored four goals and Russia beat Greece 6-5 to claim the bronze medal.

Tony Azevedo and Jesse Smith scored three goals apiece as the United States upset world championship silver medalist Italy 9-8 for seventh place.

Wrestling
Daniel Cormier, of Stillwater, Okla., couldn’t hold a 2-0 overtime lead and lost the bronze 3-2 to Iran’s Ali Reza Heidari in the 211½-pound freestyle class. The match was a repeat of Heidari’s victory in last year’s world championships.

Slide show   Emotional Moments: Aug. 29 Trouble mars the marathon but the Olympic spirit prevails.

Cormier had hoped to win a medal in honor of his late daughter, an infant killed in a car accident just over a year ago.

Khadjimourat Gatsalov of Russia defeated Magomed Ibragimov of Uzbekistan 4-1 for the 96kg gold.

Yandro Quintana of Cuba won the gold at 132-pounds, beating Masuod Mostafa Gokar of Iran 4-0. Kenji Inoue of Japan won the bronze.

Five-time world champion Buvaysa Saytiev of Russia won the gold medal at 163-pounds, beating Gennadiy Laliyev of Kazakhstan 7-0. Ivan Fundora Zaldivar of Cuba won the bronze.

The seven-man U.S. freestyle team left Athens with three medals, Cael Sanderson’s gold and silvers by Jamill Kelly and Stephen Abas.

Taekwondo
Moon Dae-sung of South Korea won the gold medal in men’s over-80-kilogram taekwondo by knocking out Alexandros Nikolaidis of Greece. Pascal Gentil of France won the bronze.

Moon floored Nikolaidis with a kick to the head late in the first round.

Chen Zhong of China won the gold medal in the women’s over-67-kilogram class, beating Myriam Baverel of France. Adriana Carmona of Venezuela won the bronze.

Rhythmic Gymnastics
Four years after watching her medal hopes end when she lost control of her hoop, two-time world champion Alina Kabaeva from Russia won the rhythmic gymnastics all-around in a rout.

She finished with 108.400 points, more than a point ahead of silver medalist Irina Tchachina of Russia. Anna Bessonova of Ukraine took the bronze.

Men’s Team Handball
Croatia, the reigning world champion, won the Olympic gold medal 26-24 in a physical match with Germany.

Following a German turnover, Niksa Kaleb scored from the left wing to give Croatia a three-goal lead with just over three minutes remaining and the Germans couldn’t recover.

Mirza Dzomba scored nine goals on 10 shots for Croatia, including the last one with 31 seconds left. Croatian goalkeepers Vlado Sola and Venio Losert made nine saves each.

Women’s Team Handball
Denmark won its third consecutive Olympic title in women’s team handball, defeating South Korea 4-2 in a penalty shootout after playing to a 34-34 tie at the end of two overtimes.

Danish goalkeeper Karin Oernhoej Mortensen had two saves, and Henriette Mikkelsen scored the decisive goal in the shootout. The final was a rematch of the 1996 Atlanta Games, which Denmark also won, 37-33 in extra time.

South Korea won the team handball gold in 1988 and 1992 and seemed on the brink of victory Sunday, leading 34-33 with less than 10 seconds remaining in the second overtime. But Denmark’s Katrine Frueland sent the game into a shootout when she scored just eight seconds before the horn.

Hungary topped Spain 38-29 to take fifth place. Pan American Games champion Brazil defeated China to finish seventh.

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