By Ian Ransom
PARIS (Reuters) -Spain celebrated their first gold medal in Olympic women's water polo by fending off Australia 11-9 on Saturday to erase galling defeats in finals at the Tokyo and London 2012 Games.
Maica Godoy put the Spaniards 11-7 up with a goal late in the fourth quarter and though Australia clawed two back their rally was cut short by the clock in front of a packed house at La Defense Arena.
It was third time lucky for Spain, three years after being trounced 14-5 in Tokyo and 8-5 in London by the United States, who also won the title in 2016.
"We weren't settling for another silver, we wanted the gold," Spain wing Anni Espar told reporters.
"We fought and finally achieved (it). I'm grateful for being able to live this."
Australia, inaugural champions at Sydney 2000, missed out on a first gold in 24 years but took their first medal since bronze in London.
For the Spanish, they dodged their bogey team when Australia upset the U.S. in a shootout in the semi-finals.
The U.S. missed out on the medals altogether for the first time, with the Netherlands' Sabrina van der Sloot scoring with less than a second left to claim a thrilling 11-10 win and the bronze.
Van der Sloot's winner capped an incredible fightback by the Dutch who trailed 9-6 in the final quarter but racked up five goals to topple the champions.
Six-goal hero Van der Sloot said: "I thought they were going to attack me because I'd already scored five but they didn’t so I was like, 'Well, if you're not going to attack me, I'm going to shoot’. I saw this little hole. It was amazing it went in."
The Netherlands secured their first medal for 16 years, having beaten the Americans 9-8 for the 2008 gold in Beijing.
U.S. coach Adam Krikorian said he was sad and proud for his team.
"Holland obviously was the better team today ... It's going to hurt for a while," he said.
With the score locked at 10-10 and eight seconds left, the Netherlands called a time-out.
After the restart, Van der Sloot confronted a crowded U.S. goalmouth and launched a rocket that skipped off the water and beat keeper Ashleigh Johnson inside the right post.
With 0.7 seconds left on the clock, the U.S. had one last fling but Johnson's long-range effort was blocked by the cage.
The U.S.'s most vocal backer and sponsor Flavor Flav, the rapper and founding member of Public Enemy, consoled the team on social media.
"I love my girls,,, and imma so proud of them. We introduced Water Polo to a new audience and we just getting started,,, We headed to LA28," he posted on X.
(Reporting by Ian Ransom; Editing by Alison Williams, Ken Ferris and Ed Osmond)
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