SHENZHEN, 23 Aug. - Marko PETKOVIC was the toast of Serbia after his five goals helped destroy Russia 11-8 in the men¡¯s water polo gold-medal final at Shenzhen Baoan Natatorium on Tuesday.

PETKOVIC, who had only three goals to his name before the match, scored the first three goals for Serbia and nailed his fifth when the score was 8-4 just before three-quarter time.

Luka SAPONJIC stretched the margin to five by the final break. SAPONJIC, who attends university in the United States with his younger brother Aleksa, scored his second goal and 11th of the tournament at 10-5 midway through the fourth quarter, a gap Russia could not bridge.

The absolute winner was fittingly hammered in by powerful centre forward Nemanja UBOVIC, with just 2:27 remaining, taking the score to 11-6. He top-scored for the champions with 13 goals in the competition.

Russia scored two useful extra-man goals off timeout strategies in the last two minutes but the game was lost.

Alexey RHYZOV ALENICHEV (RUS) looked set to add many goals to his Games tally of 10 goals when he opened the scoring but he was shut down, especially in the third quarter where Russia went scoreless as Serbia rattled in five goals.