Sunday, Aug. 29

ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- 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 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. Lima was able to get back into the race,
but he lost several more seconds and eventually was overtaken by
Baldini.
   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.
   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. 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.
   Baldini finished in 2 hours, 10 minutes and 54 seconds.
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Boxing
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Andre Ward 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.
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Men's Volleyball
Gold Medal
Brazil 3, Italy 1 (25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 25-22)
Bronze Medal
Russia 3, United States 0 (25-22, 27-25, 25-16)
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Brazil backed up its No. 1 world ranking
with a gold-medal finish to a near-perfect Olympics, beating rival
Italy 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 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.
   Russia won the silver medal in 2000.
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Men's Team Handball
Gold Medal
Croatia 26, Germany 24
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Croatia, the reigning world champion, won
the Olympic gold medal 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
Gold Medal
Denmark 38, South Korea 36, shootout
Classification
Hungary 38, Spain 29
Brazil 26, China 25
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- 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 to take fifth place. Pan American Games
champion Brazil defeated China to finish seventh.
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Men's Water Polo
Gold Medal
Hungary 8, Serbia-Montenegro 7
Bronze Medal
Russia 6, Greece 5
Classification
Germany 6, Spain 4
United States 9, Italy 8
Australia 8, Croatia 7
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- Hungary won its eighth Olympic water polo
gold medal, scoring three unanswered goals in the last quarter to
edge Serbia-Montenegro 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 to
claim the bronze medal.
   Tony Azevedo and Jesse Smith scored three goals apiece as the
United States upset world championship silver medalist Italy for
seventh place.
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Wrestling
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- 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 2111/2-pound (96kg) freestyle class. The
match was a repeat of Heidari's victory in last year's world
championships.
   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 (60 kg),
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 (74 kg), 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
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- 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.
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Rhythmic Gymnastics
   ATHENS, Greece (AP) -- 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.