Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SATURDAY, July 16, 1994 TAG: 9407160080
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: SCOTT BLANCHARD STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
\ The United States' national four-wall handball doubles champions were spread on the sticky floor of a steamy hallway outside muggy courts at Roanoke's YMCA Central on Friday afternoon.
"Our talent will probably get us to the finals," Jim Larson was saying, referring to the Commonwealth Games of Virginia's competition that began Friday. "If we get that far, I'm sure we'll put our game faces on."
If.
Oops.
Richmonders George Gibbs and Norm Royce whacked Larson and Pat Lowery - the defending Games champions - off the wall and out of the Games' doubles tournament, winning a five-game match Friday evening that ended with an 11-10 game.
The fifth annual Commonwealth Games continues today with its fattest day of competition at sites mostly in the Roanoke Valley.
While Gibbs and Royce captured attention and accomplishment, their victory did nothing to erase what Larson and Lowery did 2 1/2 weeks ago in Minneapolis. There, the 39-year-old supervisor in the U.S. government's retirement system (Lowery) and the 27-year-old U.S. Patent Office worker (Larson) survived the class B bracket - the only handball bracket (except for professional) that has no age restrictions.
In their semifinal, their opponents served for the match nine times before Larson closed the issue with three straight points beginning with he and Lowery trailing 8-10. The match is one of Lowery's favorite videos.
"I keep looking at it, trying to figure out how we did it," the Centreville resident said.
Larson, from Arlington, said he didn't think about winning the match until it was 10-10.
"And then I was real nervous with my serve," he said, adding that he and Lowery played conservatively. "They made all the mistakes. Usually, it's us. That's why we were so surprised."
The final, Lowery said, was a "letdown" after the semifinal encounter, and bore none of the same tension.
Not that these two are uptight, anyway. Lowery's 4 1/2-year-old daughter, Ryann, cavorted in the hallway outside the handball courts Friday until she saw Larson, whom she greeted amiably as, "Stinky Jim."
Larson, who grew up in Minnetonka, Minn., played the national tournament back on his old grounds - and knew all the local establishments, Lowery said. It was a one-match-per-day tournament - "playing and rehabbing," Lowery said. The boys' (handball) day was over at around 5 p.m., in time to perhaps visit a watering hole.
"That was the rehabbing," Lowery said.
Because of Gibbs and Royce, the doubles national champs now can concentrate on singles, in which both won Friday. They couldn't be blamed if they're still having Minnesota dreams, though.
"You just don't know what to think," Lowery said. "You don't think you'll be a national champion. It's inconceivable. Anything can happen."
In other Games action Friday:
\ ARCHERY: Steve Lowe of Christiansburg continued his string of Commonwealth Games success, and he's only 11 years old.
Archery coordinator Johnny Grace said he thought Lowe, who set a Cadet class record in each of the past two Games, put up the day's highest score during the competition at Green Hill Park in Roanoke County. Lowe shoots a lighter-resistance bow from a lesser distance (40, 30 and 20 meters) than adults (60, 50 and 40), but the results are scored the same.
"He shoots so well, you put him up at the distance his age group normally shoots, and he just dominates," Grace said.
\ CYCLING: Two participants were treated for heat exhaustion during the cycling competition on the Blue Ridge Parkway, but the event went on. Competitors included David Whitestone of Springfield, who pedaled in the masters' 55-59 class. He competes with an artificial limb extending below his right knee.
Cyclists won some of the first gold medals awarded during the Games' main weekend. Winners of competitive classes included Bill Collie of Wise in licensed novice men, Ralph Muoio of Charlottesville in the licensed sport and expert men, Ed Dickenson of Roanoke in the licensed masters age 30-39 and Billy Pearlman of Roanoke in masters 35-39.
\ TENNIS: Christian Brower of Fairfax Station will try to win his second gold medal in two years at the Games today when he faces Northside High School graduate Kevin Dalal in the boys' 18 final at noon at River's Edge.
Brower, the top seed in the boys' 18 field, won the boys' 16 gold medal last year.
In other gold-medal matches today:
No. 1 seed Cara Prupas of Blacksburg meets Salem's Jill Archer in the girls' 16 final, 9 a.m. at Crystal Spring; No. 1 seed Leah Morris of Prince George meets Katie Brinkman of Norfolk in the girls' 18 final, 1:30 p.m. at Crystal Spring; and No. 1 seed Hampton Paisley of Roanoke meets second-seeded Matt Frakes of Harrisonburg in the boys' 14 final, 9 a.m. at Crystal Spring.
by CNB