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ROME, Italy, August 1. FOURTEEN days of water polo came to a close with the final medal matches of the men's tournament at the FINA World Championships.
Serbia tripped up Spain, 14-13, in the gold-medal match. Vanja Udovicic and Filip Filipovic were nearly unstoppable as the duo scored five and four goals, respectively, for Serbia. Serbia converted 14 of 36 shots. Xavier Garcia almost single-handedly won the match for Spain with an astounding seven goals in the finale. He just did not have enough help around him to knock off Serbia as Spain went 13-for-48.
In the bronze-medal match, Croatia upended the U.S., 8-6. Samir Barac and Paulo Obradovic scored twice each for Croatia, which connected on 8 of 29 shots. Tony Azevedo led the U.S. with two goals, but the team scored on only 6 of 23 shots.
Hungary downed Germany, 9-6, in the 5th-6th place classification contest. Norbert Hosnyanszky posted a hat trick for Hungary, which converted on 9 of 22 shots. Marc Politze tacked on three goals for Germany, which went 6-for-30 from the field.
Romania topped Canada, 9-6, in the 7th-8th place matchup. Cosmin Alexandru Radu and Alexandru Matei Guiman led the way for Romania with two goals each. The Romanians scored on 9 of 26 shots. Thomas Marks and Kevin Graham each tallied two goals for Canada, which went 6-for-19.