Yugoslavia, winners in 1990, regained the world basketball championship yesterday when they beat Russia 64-62 in Athens. In a tense final played out to a near capacity crowd of around 18,000 at the Olympic indoor stadium, the Yugoslavs just held on.

Russia had led 35-30 at halftime but Yugoslavia took a critical 57-56 lead with a minute left.

Earlier, the United States had taken the bronze medal, beating Greece 84-61 in the third place play-off.

On Saturday, the Russians had staged a thrilling comeback to beat the United States 66-64 in the last seconds of their semi-final.

Russia had trailed the non-NBA Americans by 10 points with five minutes to go, but two three-pointers by Sergei Babkov helped take them to 64-64.

Then, after American playmaker Michael Hawkins was judged to have fouled, Sergei Panov ran forward to notch the winning basket with only three seconds left.

It was a sad end for the US team, thrown together only a month ago in the wake of the NBA dispute. They had improved throughout the tournament, only to be denied near the death.

"I love them," said US coach Rudy Tomjanovich, the Houston Rockets icon who has moulded the Americans into an effective unit.