Italy beat Spain to win world waterpolo title for fourth time

Italy beat Spain 10-5 for its fourth FINA World Championship men's water polo crown at the Nambu University Grounds in Gwangju yesterday.

Before a crowd of more than 3000 and a large, chanting Italian mob, Italy led 5-3 at halftime and 8-4 at the final break, totally outclassing Spain, whose women also had to settle for silver the night before.

Not since 1992 have these two met in a major championship final and that was the Barcelona Olympics when the match went into many periods of extra time.

Ironically, on that day, current Italian head coach Alessandro Campagna was a member of the winning Italian team.

Italy is a quadruple champion, having won in 1978, 1994 and 2011 and has two silvers and two bronzes. In 1994, the score was also 10-5 and also over Spain.

Spain won in 1998 and 2001 in a golden period for the Iberian nation that also included the 1996 Olympic crown. It had three silver medals and, sadly, now a fourth.

Goalkeeper Marco Del Lungo was named the championships' best goalkeeper and team-mate Francesco Di Fulvio the Most Valuable Player, such was his fortnight of excellence.

Outgoing champions Croatia took out Hungary 10-7 for bronze in what is a rematch of the 2017 gold-medal encounter in Budapest.

Like last year, Croatia was the victor. This time Maro Jokovic was the saviour with an incredible six goals.

Olympic and World League champion Serbia took on Australia for fifth and came out spitting fire and racing to a 6-0 lead before closing at 13-9.