RIO DE JANEIRO -- When it was all over, when they had the title they had coveted for years, Serbias jubilant players hung the countrys flag over one of the floating cages in the pool.The soaked flag said it all. Serbia had finally conquered the Olympic mens water polo tournament.Dusan Mandic scored four times, Branislav Mitrovic made 12 saves and Serbia dethroned Croatia with an 11-7 victory at the Rio Games on Saturday.This is maybe the best feeling in my life, center Slobodan Nikic said. I feel like Im flying.It was Serbias first Olympic gold medal in perhaps its favorite sport. The former Yugoslavia won three gold medals and Serbia and Montenegro lost in the 2004 final in Athens, but Serbia finished third in each of the previous two Olympics.After winning the world and European championships, Serbias star-studded roster had to deal with the burden of expectations when it arrived in Brazil. Then the pressure intensified when the team opened with a pair of draws and a surprising loss to the host country.But Serbia eventually found its way and closed with five consecutive victories by a combined score of 53-38. No settling for bronze this time around.We want this from the whole beginning of our careers, said Filip Filipovic, who scored two goals in the final and was voted tournament MVP.We trained so hard and so much. We suffer so much for this gold medal. As we saw, the road to this Olympic gold was very tough and very stressful for us.There were hugs on Serbias side of the pool as the final seconds ticked off, and the players jumped right in when it was over.Coach Dejan Savic avoided the traditional swim with his team, even sneaking off the deck for a moment before returning to the bench to watch the celebration. He wagged his finger and blew kisses to his players as they beckoned him to join them in the water.This is it for us. Lets say its game over, a grinning Filipovic said.Sandro Sukno scored three times for Croatia, which won gold in London. Javier Garcia Gadea had two goals.Serbia was the better team, Croatia coach Ivica Tucak said. We tried everything we had against them but they were just too physical and strong. The result shows that.Marko Bijac, who was voted the tournaments top goaltender and played a key role in Croatias run to the final, made five saves before he was replaced by Josip Pavic after Filipovic scored to make it 8-4 with 2:14 left in the third.They got easy fouls and they are such strong shooters, its very hard to stop, Bijac said.Italy beat Montenegro 12-10 for the bronze medal. Stefano Tempesti led the way with 10 saves, and Christian Presciutti scored four times.Its the second straight Olympic medal for Italy, which lost to Croatia in the London final. Italy also became the only country to medal in each water polo tournament in Brazil, with the women taking home silver on Friday.Its a great moment for (the) Italian water polo team, Tempesti said.The 37-year-old Tempesti had surgery on his right eye after he got hurt in the final match of the Italian championship in May. He finished with 51 saves in his fifth Olympics.Asked if the victory over Montenegro was his final game, he responded: I think so. Im quite sure, yeah.To be here with my eye, all the surgery, everything, day by day I had to learn how to come back in this Olympics, Tempesti said, and winning this medal, its the right reward, the best reward for what I have gone through in the last few months.Valentino Gallo added three goals for Italy, which lost to Serbia in the semifinals.Montenegro finished fourth for the third straight Olympics.We must make some changes, put some new players (on the team), but in this moment we dont have a lot of good young players, Montenegro coach Vladimir Gojkovic said. If we did they would be here now.---Jay Cohen can be reached at http://www.twitter.com/jcohenapVapormax Store . With Parker having a quiet game for once, Nicolas Batum and Boris Diaw provided the scoring as France won its first major basketball title by beating Lithuania 80-66 on Sunday. 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LOS ANGELES -- After leaping from an airplane, Luke Aikins rocketed toward earth for two minutes, and then calmly flipped onto his back at the last second and landed in a 100-by-100-foot net in California.Cheers rose from those who gathered at the Big Sky movie ranch on the outskirts of Simi Valley to watch the stunt, including his family.The 42-year-old skydiver with more than 18,000 jumps made history as the first person to survive a leap without a parachute and land safely in a net.As the audience erupted, Aikins quickly climbed out, walked over and hugged his wife, Monica, who had been watching from the ground with their 4-year-old son, Logan, and other family members.Im almost levitating. Its incredible, the jubilant skydiver said, raising his hands over his head as his wife held their son, who dozed in her arms.This thing just happened! I cant even get the words out of my mouth, he added as he thanked the dozens of crew members who spent two years helping him prepare for the jump, including those who assembled the fishing trawler-like net and made sure it really worked.The jump -- from the death-defying altitude of 25,000 feet -- makes Aikins the only skydiver ever to go from plane to planet Earth without a parachute.The stunt, broadcast live on the Fox network for the TV special Stride Gum Presents Heaven Sent, nearly didnt come off as planned when Aikins revealed just before climbing into his plane that the Screen Actors Guild had ordered him to wear a parachute to ensure his safety.Aikins didnt say what prompted the original restriction, but SAG spokeswoman Pamela Greenwalt said the union and producers could not come to an agreement on the safest way to pursue this stunt and therefore we could not sanction it to go forward under a union agreement.Aikins said he considered pulling out at that point because having the parachute canister on his back would make his landing in the net far more dangerous. If he had to wear it, he said he wouldnt bother to pull the ripcord anyway.Im going all the way to the net, no question about it, he said from the plane. Ill just have to deal with the consequences when I land of wearing the parachute on my back and what its going to do to my body.A few minutes before the jump. one of the shows hosts said the requirement had been lifted. Aikins left the plane without the chute.He jumped with three other skydivvers, each wearing parachutes.dddddddddddd One had a camera, another trailed smoke so people on the ground could follow his descent and the third took an oxygen canister he handed off after they got to an altitude where it was no longer needed.Then the others opened their parachutes and left him on his own.Aikins admitted before the jump he was nervous. and his mother said she was one family member who wouldnt watch.When his friend Chris Talley came up with the idea two years ago, Aikins acknowledged he turned it down cold.I kind of laugh and I say, `Ok, thats great. Ill help you find somebody to do it, he told The Associated Press as he trained for the jump last week.A couple of weeks after Talley made his proposal, Aikins called back and said he would do it. Hed been the backup jumper in 2012 when Felix Baumgartner became the first skydiver to break the speed of sound during a jump from 24 miles above Earth.Aikins was able hit the net with pinpoint precision thanks to GPS alerts in his helmet and a sophisticated lighting setup on the ground that was visible from more than 25,000 feet up, Talley said Sunday. If Aikins veered off course the lights appeared red, but when he was on target they shone bright white.Theyre very similar to the lights that a pilot sees when landing a plane at an airport, Talley said.Aikins was able to alter his course with just the slightest adjustments of his hands, said Talley, who added that experienced skydivers have incredible control over where they land.The 42-year-old daredevil made his first tandem jump when he was 12, following with his first solo leap four years later. Hes been racking them up at several hundred a year ever since.His father and grandfather were skydivers, and his wife has made 2,000 jumps. His family owns Skydive Kapowsin near Tacoma, Washington.Aikins is also a safety and training adviser for the United States Parachute Association and is certified to teach both students and skydiving instructors. His business Para Tactics provides skydiving training to Navy Seals and other members of elite fighting forces.---Associated Press Christopher Weber contributed to this story.---This story has been corrected to show Aikins jumped without a parachute and landed in a net. ' ' '