Guilherme/Para Capture First 1998 FIVB Event - Head to Goodwill Games as World's No. 1 Beach Team

Guilherme/Para Capture First 1998 FIVB Event - Head to Goodwill Games as World's No. 1 Beach Team

LIGNANO, ITALY - Brazilians Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira Souza captured their first FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour of the 1998 season here Sunday (July 19) to maintain their ranking as the world’s No. 1 team heading into the Goodwill Games.

Guilherme and Para scored 12-6 and 12-8 set wins over Mark and Paul Laciga of Switzerland in the 86-minute Gold Medal match to share $32,000 first-place prize in the fifth FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event of 1998. The Lacigas, who won the season’s first event in Argentina in January, split $23,000 for second-place.

The Brazilians advanced to the finals with a 16-14 win over Javier Bosma and Fabio Diez of Spain in an 84-minute semi-final match. The Lacigas upset top-seeded Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego of Brazil 15-12 in a 70-minute match.

Both Lignano finalists were two of six Goodwill Games teams competing in this weekend’s FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event. Ricci Luyties and Sinjin Smith of the United States tied for sevneth to split $6,000. The tandems of Martin Conde/Esteban Martinez of Argentina and Julien Prosser/Leo Zahner of Australia each shared $3,200 for finishing 13^th. Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway, the second-ranked FIVB team entering Lignano and the defending Goodwill Games Gold Medalists (1994 in St. Petersburg, Russia), tied for 17^th to split $2,000.

Not competing here this weekend are the Goodwill Games tandems of Adam Johnson/Karch Kiraly of the United States and John Child/Mark Heese of Canada. Both teams had domestic tournaments this weekend. Kiraly won the Gold Medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games with Kent Steffes while Child and Heese captured the Bronze. Johnson and Kiraly were battling for the Association of Volleyball Professional title in Belmar, N. J., where the tandem was challenging Steffes and Mike Whitemarsh in the finals. Child and Heese were competing in a Canadian event.

The Goodwill Games beach volleyball competition features $200,000 in prize money and starts Wednesday (July 22) for the men and July 29 for the women. The men’s Gold and Bronze medal matches are July 26 and the women vie for top honors August 2.