SHENZHEN, 22 Aug. - China's reputation as the second best women's water polo team was enhanced by a stunning 14-4 gold medal effort over the USA at Shenzhen Baoan Natatorium on Monday.

China used 10 senior internationals fresh from the July FINA World Championships in Shanghai to mow down the USA with a 9-0 first half that no team could swim back from.

World championship most valuable player MA Huanhuan (CHN) scored four goals to finish one goal behind Canada¡¯s Monika EGGENS on the tournament scoring list. The fact that MA could star in a team of stars was an incredible feat.

USA battled hard and was rewarded with two goals in each of the third and fourth quarters but the game was over as a spectacle.

The toughest statistic for USA was not converting extra-man advantage 10 times while China netted 8 from 12 chances.

Russia survived a third-quarter scare to swim away from Italy 18-9 in the bronze medal match.

Russia led at the quarter breaks 4-2, 8-5 and 12-8 but it was the third period where Italy scored three quick goals to narrow the game to one goal, 9-8 in Russia¡¯s favour.

Then the flow of goals dried up for Italy as Russia scored nine unanswered goals with 2009 world junior champion Olga BELOVA (RUS) leading the charge with four goals.

Ironically, the woman who pulled Russia to the finals, Oleksandra KARPOVICH, was the only Russian field player not to score on Monday after a fine tournament in which she recorded 16 goals and was targetted by the top teams on the run into the medals matches.

Britain won the 7-9 round-robin series with a 15-3 hammering of Mexico. Mexico took 8th place while France was 9th.

Final rankings: CHN, USA, RUS, ITA, AUS, CAN, GBR, MEX, FRA.