Briefly

Men’s basketball

Argentina defeated Italy 84-69 on Saturday night to win the gold medal, becoming only the fourth nation to win the title. Luis Scola scored 25 points and Alejandro Montecchia hit two big 3-pointers in the fourth quarter to lead Argentina, which was making just its fourth Olympic appearance. San Antonio Spurs guard Manu Ginobili, the only NBA player on the Argentine roster, had 16 points and six assists.

The United States has won 12 Olympic men’s basketball gold medals. The Soviet Union won two (1972 and 1988), while Yugoslavia won in 1980 when the Americans boycotted the Moscow Games.

The Americans took the bronze-medal game seriously and earned some revenge in a 104-96 victory over Lithuania, who they had lost to in pool play.

Women’s basketball

Russia ended a 12-year women’s basketball medal drought with a 71-62 victory over Brazil to take the bronze medal. Diana Gustilina led Russia with 12 points, while Elena Baranova had seven points, four rebounds and four assists.

Men’s soccer

Argentina won its first Olympic gold medal in soccer, beating Paraguay 1-0 on Carlos Tevez’s eighth goal of the tournament.

Despite the loss, Paraguay captured its first medal in any sport.

In a game the Argentines controlled from the beginning, Mauro Rosales helped set up the winning goal in the 18th minute with a cross from the right side. Tevez ran between Paraguay defenders Julio Manzur and Carlos Gamarra and shot the ball into the net from about 20 feet out.

Wrestling

Uzbekistan’s Artur Taymazov knocked off Iran’s Alireza Rezaei to win the gold in men’s 264 1/2 -pound (120 kg) freestyle. Aydin Polatci of Turkey took the bronze.

Canoe-kayak

Birgit Fischer settled for silver, leaving the 42-year-old Olympian with two medals in two days. The two-woman crew from Hungary overtook Fischer and her German partner in the second half of the 500-meter kayak race, ending her quest for a ninth gold medal. Natasa Janics and Katalin Kovacs won the gold. Poland got the bronze.

It was a remarkable performance by Janics, who won the 500-meter single kayak race only 70 minutes earlier. Janics, 22, wasn’t even born when Fischer won the first of her eight gold medals in Moscow in 1980. Fischer got her fourth silver since she started competing.

In single kayak, Janics beat Josefa Idem of Italy, who finished second, and Caroline Brunet of Canada, who finished third.

Germany’s Andreas Dittmer beat Spaniard David Cal by .34 seconds to win the 500-meter canoe event, while Russia’s Maxim Opalev took bronze.

Canadian single kayaker Adam van Koeverden took his second medal of the game — this one a gold in the 500-meter final. He beat Australia’s Nathan Baggaley by .55 seconds, with Britain’s Ian Wynne taking bronze.

In the 500-meter pairs kayak, Germany’s Ronald Rauhe and Tim Wieskoetter won handily. Australia ended up with the silver, .07 seconds ahead of Belarus, which took the bronze.

The Chinese canoe pair of Guanliang Meng and Wenjun Yang delivered a surprise victory in a race where five canoes crossed the line in a photo finish.

Boxing

Thailand’s Manus Boonjumnong pulled the biggest upset of Saturday’s five gold medal bouts, using ring movement and speed to beat Yudel Johnson of Cuba 17-11 in a light welterweight bout. Two other Cubans, heavyweight Odlanier Solis and flyweight Yuriokis Gamboa, won their gold medal bouts.

Boonjumnong made sure the powerful Cuban team wouldn’t tie its record of seven gold medals in Barcelona by beating Johnson in a tactical bout that had the Cuban team and its fans upset.

Gamboa promptly won the first Cuban gold of the Games against Jerome Thomas of France 38-23.

Solis, who replaced retired three-time Olympic champion Felix Savon as the Cuban heavyweight, beat Viktar Zuyev of Belarus in a lackluster 22-13 bout.

Two Russians also won golds. Alexei Tichtchenko beat Song Guk Kim of North Korea 39-17 at featherweight, while Gaydarbek Gaydarbekov beat Gennadiy Golovkin of Kazakhstan 28-18 in a middleweight bout.

Four more Cubans fight for gold medals today when the final six weight classes are contested. Among them is the light heavyweight final, where American Andre Ward faces Magomed Aripgadjiev of Belarus.

Cycling

Julien Absalon, whose focus had been on Athens since failing to make France’s Olympic team four years ago, pulled away in the second half of the mountain bike race and eased to victory in 2 hours, 15 minutes, 2 seconds.

Jose Antonio Hermida of Spain finished second, exactly a minute behind Absalon. Bart Brentjens of the Netherlands, the world’s top-ranked rider and 1996 Olympic champion, took the bronze.

Sailing

Roman Hagara and Hans Peter Steinacher of Austria won the gold medal in sailing’s Tornado class. John Lovell and Charlie Ogeltree of the United States won the silver. Santiago Lange and Carlos Espinola of Argentina got the bronze.

In the Star class, Ross MacDonald and Mike Wolfs of Canada won the silver medal while, Xavier Rohart and Pascal Rambeau of France got the bronze. Torben Grael and Marcelo Ferreira of Brazil clinched the gold on Thursday with one race remaining.

Women’s volleyball

Ping Zhang led a determined rally past Russia with 25 points in the Olympic final as China posted 28-30, 25-27, 25-20, 25-23, 15-12 win over the Russians in the gold medal match. After dropping the first two sets, China came back to tie — staying a step ahead of the Russians in the final set. Yuehong Zhang ended it with a spike from the left side.

A hard-hitting, high-jumping attack led by Nancy Carillo de la Paz and Zoila Barros Fernandez sparked the Cubans to an easy 25-22, 25-22, 14-25, 25-17 victory over Brazil in the bronze medal match.

Taekwondo

In the women’s under 67-kilogram event, Luo Wei of China beat Elisavet Mystakidou of Greece, disappointing a raucous home crowd. Hwang Kyung-sun of South Korea won the bronze.

Women’s handball

Ukraine beat 2003 world champion France 21-18 to win the team bronze medal. Maryna Vergelyuk six goals on seven shots for Ukraine, while goalkeeper Nataliya Borysenko made 15 saves.

Denmark faces South Korea for the gold today.

Men’s handball

Russian goalkeeper Andrei Lavrov, playing in his fifth and final Olympics, earned a bronze medal when Russia beat Hungary 28-26.

Lavrov, 42, won his first Olympic gold medal playing for the Soviet Union in 1988.

Germany faces Croatia in the men’s final today.

Rhythmic gymnastics

Russia, the defending Olympic champion, won another gold in group rhythmic gymnastics, scoring 51.100 points to edge Italy and Bulgaria.

The Russians also won a bronze in 1996, the year group rhythmic was added to the games. Italy won its first Olympic medal in the sport. Bulgaria, which won silver at the Atlanta Olympics, returned to the medal stand after being shut out in 2000.

Diving

Hu Jia overtook teammate Tian Liang on his next-to-last dive to win the 10-meter platform title, giving China a record sixth Olympic diving gold medal.

Hu totaled 748.08 points to upset defending champion Tian in the last diving event of the Athens Games.

Mathew Helm of Australia edged Tian for silver by 0.90 points, finishing with 730.56. Tian totaled 729.66.