Medal Day at the Wollman Rink Beach - Brazil vs. USA for Gold

NEW YORK, N. Y. - The men's beach volleyball competition at the 1998 Goodwill Games Gold concludes here Sunday (July 26) with two matches at Wollman Rink in Central Park to decide the Bronze, Silver and Gold medals.

Sunday's featured match has Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly of the United States challenging Brazilians Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira, the top-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, for the Gold medal and the $30,000 first-place prize at Wollman Rink.

The Goodwill Games competition starts at 12 p.m. (EDT) Sunday at Wollman Rink with the Martin Conde and Esteban Martinez playing Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner for the 1998 Goodwill Games Bronze medal.  The Gold medal match will follow 30 minutes after the conclusion of the third-place competition.

The Johnson/Kiraly tandem advanced to the finals with a 12-2 and 12-10 win over Australians Prosser and Zahner in a 77-minute semi-final match Saturday.   The Americans led from the start to win the first set easily.  Prosser and Zahner made a match of it in the second set by tying Johnson and Kiraly at 9s and 10s.

Guilherme and Para downed Conde and Martinez of Argentina 12-5 and 12-10 in a 79-minute semi-final contest.  The Brazilians led from the start in each match as Conde and Martinez made it interesting in the second set after trailing 11-4 as Guilherme and Para won it on the 12th match point serve.

The Brazilians downed Johnson and Kiraly 15-3 Thursday in Group A play.  Guilherme and Para are they only unbeaten team in the 1998 Goodwill Games posting a 3-0 record in round-robin play along with Saturday's victory over their South American rivals.  Johnson and Kiraly are 3-1 this week, including a 2-1 pool play mark.

Both medal matches feature the FIVB's Format B with two out of three sets to 12 points.  The first two sets must be won with a minimum lead of two points with a point limit at 12-point cap.  The deciding set will feature the rally scoring system to 12 points with a minimum lead of two points.  There is no point cap for the deciding set.

Norway's Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide scored a 15-13 win over John Child and Mark Heese of Canada to capture fifth-place Saturday at Wollman Rink.   The Norwegians, who won the 1994 Goodwill Games Gold medal in St. Petersburg, Russia, shared the $8,000 purse for fifth-place while Child and Heese, the Bronze medalists at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games, split $7,000 for sixth.  The Laciga Brothers (Martin and Paul) of Switzerland scored a 15-7 win over Ricci Luyties and Sinjin Smith of the United States to earn seventh-place in the competition.  The Swiss split $5,000 while Luyties and Smith shared $4,000.