Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, July 24, 1990 TAG: 9007240407
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B6 EDITION: EVENING
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: SEATTLE LENGTH: Medium
Still, the national basketball teams of the United States and Soviet Union meet tonight for the first time since a semifinal showdown in Seoul two years ago.
OK, so Valeri Tikhonenko is the only player from that game on either roster.
All right, this is only the Goodwill Games and the more important world championships are coming up next month.
It's still the United States against the Soviet Union.
"We like to go against any of the Soviets," starting center Alonzo Mourning said Sunday.
"No matter what tournament you are in," Tikhonenko said, "the U.S. is thought to be the best, and for us this is no different."
The Soviets defeated the U.S. 82-76 in the 1988 Olympic semifinals.
The U.S. team started play in the eight-nation competition Monday night with a feisty showing in a 100-94 struggle over Puerto Rico, while the Soviets beat Italy 88-85.
Mourning was ejected along with Puerto Rico's Jose Ortiz for fighting in the first half. Then Billy Owens and Kenny Anderson took charge. Owens had 34 points, Anderson finished with 21, nine in the last 2:54.
The U.S. won a total of 14 medals Monday - five gold, five silver and four bronze - including a sweep in the 100, where the 21-year-old Leroy Burrell handed two-time Olympic champion and world record holder Carl Lewis his first defeat this season.
Roger Kingdom, the Olympic gold medalist at Los Angeles and Seoul, led another U.S. sweep in the 110-meter hurdles, and edged closer to the form that made him the top track and field athlete in the world last year by edging fellow American Tony Dees in a race so close a photo decided the gold medal.
"It should have been called a dead heat," Dees said. "I don't consider it a loss."
Americans took the top four places with Olympian Arthur Blake third and Cletus Clark finishing fourth.
And Jackie Joyner-Kersee re-established her dominance in the heptathlon with a runaway win over Soviet Larisa Nikitina. Joyner-Kersee won five of the seven events over two days in scoring 6,783 points, well short of her world record mark of 7,291 points set in the 1988 Olympics. It was the best in the world this year.
The United States set an American record in the women's 400-meter medley relay at 4:06.95 and beat the East German women in a relay for the first time since the 1978 world championships. Even the American "B" team finished second.
"It's very, very satisfying to beat the East Germans after 12 years of Americna women being beaten by them," said Betsy Mitchell, who swam the backstroke leg. "It's truly a great thing for the four of us and for our team."
The other members were Tracey McFarlane in the breaststroke, Janel Jorgensen in the butterfly and Nicole Haislett in the freestyle.
Janet Evans easily won her third gold of the games, in the 1,500-meter freestyle with the second-fastest time ever, 15:54.23. Summer Sanders, who upset Evans in the 400-meter individual medley Saturday, took her second gold of the games, winning the 200 individual medley in 2:14.06.
Cuba' Ana Quirot completed a sweep of the women's 400 and 800 meters, taking the 800 Monday in 1:57.42. Quirot, track and field's woman athlete of the year in 1989, also won the 400 and 800 at last year's World Cup in Barcelona.
Yelena Yelesina, 20, won the women's high jump at 6-7 1/2, the best in the world this year.
U.S. champion Joe Falcon won a slow men's 1,500 meters in 3:39.77 for his first victory in a major international championship.
PattiSue Plumer, the American 5,000-meter champion, won a tactical women's 3,000-meter race in 8:51.59, more than 10 seconds off her best this year.
Soviet hockey player Sergei Fedorov apparently defected to join the Detroit Red Wings. A Detroit television station and TBS, broadcaster of the Goodwill Games, said the Red Wings confirmed the defection.
"We are willing to have negotiations with Detroit if the player is returned," said Soviet Ice Hockey Federation vice president Yuri Korolev. "If the player is not returned, there is nothing to discuss. We are talking about the Goodwill Games and there has been no good will."
by CNB