Thursday, July 30, 1998
Hawaii boxer loses
Waianae's Rodriguez is
Associated Press
routed in the semifinals
at the Goodwill GamesNEW YORK -- The United States learned that one good day doesn't guarantee a repeat performance.
That was just one lesson the experienced fighters from Cuba taught the young Americans in yesterday's semifinals at the Goodwill Games. Another one was how to win on the international stage.
A day after the United States gained three victories over Cuba, Olympic heavyweight champion Felix Savon and bantamweight Waldemar Font, the world championship silver medalist, used their ring savvy to turn the tables on their opponents.
Font routed Antonio Rodriguez of Waianae, 21-5.
"He's a lot better than me," said the the 19-year-old U.S. champion. "I just gave it my all. It's a good learning experience for me.
"We're getting a lot tougher as we go by," Rodriguez said. "Our team is a lot younger than Cuba and the other European teams."
Rodriguez was a surprise to even reach the semifinals. He defeated Turkey's Soner Karaaoz, the bronze medalist from the world championships, in Monday's quarterfinal bout.
"I stood with him," Rodriguez said of Font. "He didn't hurt me, he just outpointed me."
Savon, 30, who won the world championship silver medal and the gold medal in the 1992 and 1996 Olympics, beat Malcolm Tann of San Antonio when Tann's corner threw in the towel at 1:20 of the third round.
Cuba won five of its six bouts yesterday at the Theater at Madison Square Garden, including two of the three against the United States.
Savon will fight DaVarryl Williamson of Aurora, Colo., for the heavyweight gold medal. Williamson beat Igor Kshinin of Russia in a fight stopped in the second round because of a cut over Kshinin's right eye.
U.S. fighters won two other five-round semifinal bouts. Welterweight champion Larry Mosley of Los Angeles picked up the only win for the United States over Cuba, beating Roberto Guerra in a bout decided by a tie-breaker. Jacob Hudson, the U.S. lightweight champion, from Augusta, Ga., pleased his many supporters in the crowd with a tie-breaking win over Aleksandr Leonov of Russia.
Also yesterday, American Todd Eldredge led the figure skating competition after a nearly flawless short program, and two world-championship couples from Russia moved in front in ice dancing and pairs.
Elena Berezhnaya and Anton Sikharulidze led after the short program in pairs, edging ahead of Olympic gold medalists Oksana Kazakova and Artur Dmitriev, and Anjelika Krylova and Oleg Ovsiannikov were in front following the compulsory dance.
Sikharulidze said he and Berezhnaya were not as prepared as they could have been.
"We have not had enough training for this competition," he said.
It was enough in the short program against their rivals, Kazakova and Dmitriev, who withdrew from the world championships because of food poisoning after winning the Olympics.
"We were pleased with our performance because we had been on tour and are very tired," Kazakova said.
In the compulsory dance competition, Krylova and Ovsiannikov took the lead.
"I'm very happy because it's 31/2 months after the world championships and we've only had a week to prepare for the compulsories," Ovsiannikov said.
The compulsory dance counts for 20 percent of the final score with 30 percent coming from tonight's original program. Also scheduled is the ladies singles short program, headlined by Olympic silver medalist Michelle Kwan.
In swimming, U.S. men were embarrassed when they lost the 400-meter freestyle relay -- an event they've never lost in the Olympics.
Ron Karnaugh, a swimmer on national teams since 1986, was critical of the defeat that cost the Americans a dual meet against Germany.
"There's no shortcut to success in swimming, and some of our younger kids don't work as hard as they should," said Karnaugh, 32, who won the 200 individual medley in meet-record time just before the freestyle-relay defeat that allowed Germany to win, 63-59.
Aimo Heilmann had a body-length lead over Josh Davis, a triple gold medalist in the 1996 Olympics, after the first leg, and the other three U.S. swimmers couldn't catch up.
Kurt Grote won the 100 and 200 breaststroke and swam the breaststroke leg on the winning U.S. medley relay.
Lenny Krayzelburg got the U.S. team off to a good start in the medley relay with a games record on the backstroke leg, but the world champion was upset in the individual 100 backstroke as Stev Theloke lowered Krayzelburg's record set only a few minutes before.
The race that turned the meet was the 200 freestyle. Davis won an Olympic gold medal in the event, but this time he lost by 0.23 seconds to Michael Kiedel, who also swam anchor on the Germans' winning freestyle relay.
Women's beach volleyball opened at Central Park, with defending champions Karolyn Kirby and Liz Masakayan of the U.S. falling to Australia's Pauline Manser and Kerri Pottharst, 15-10. Brazil's Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede, the world's top-ranked team, beat Canada's Kristine Drakich and Guylaine Dumont, 15-1.
