Sports

Dynasty: Hungary Grabs Gold in Men's Water Polo

by Jordan Yerman | August 24, 2008 at 06:02 am

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Hungary is celebrating twelve years of Olympic water polo dominance. The last team to win three consecutive gold medals was Great Britain, inventors of the sport, whose streak ended in 1920. The game has changed tremendously since then, and Eastern Europe has been on the bleeding edge.

The Hungarian team was heavily favored to win, but they didn't walk away with the match: the USA, who steadily made their way through the tournament, put up a serious fight, led by the superhuman Tony Azevedo, staying within four goals of Europe's water polo powerhouse.

Yes, the world's top team topped everyone again.

"Victory actually makes the pain go away, so I felt no pain," said Biros, who believes his hamstring is torn. "Now it's coming back."

The Hungarians stretched their Olympic winning streak to 17 games, the latest victim an American team that surprised just about everyone by getting to the final.

Several of the shots could have gone either way, with some cruel bar-outs keeping the USA from equalizing.

In an entertaining match from start to finish, Hungary had their sternest test in years against a U.S. team searching for a fairytale end to their best Olympics in two decades.

"It was the most difficult gold medal for us, we're really happy," Hungary coach Denes Kemeny told reporters.

"This was more satisfying than the other two gold medals. Millions of Hungarians saw this. This is an amazing achievement.

"Even in difficulty, we believed we could come out of it. We defended better, that was the key, but we were very worried."

I'll surely hear about this from the Hungarian members of the NowPublic development team, who have quietly endured my trash-talk. I hate eating crow.

Meanwhile, Serbia edged out Montenegro 6-4 to claim the Bronze.

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