Summer olympics briefs

Boxing

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 25-16, 24-26, 25-20, 25-22 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 25-22, 27-25, 25-16 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.

Men’s handball

Croatia, the reigning world champion, won the Olympic team gold medal in a physical match with Germany 26-24.

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 handball

Denmark won its third consecutive Olympic title, 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.

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

Men’s water polo

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

Gergeley Kiss scored four goals and Tamas Kasas had two for the defending 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.

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 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 211 1/2 -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

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.