Two Goodwill Games Men's Teams Advance In Italy

For Release: July 18, 1998

LIGNANO, ITALY - Two of the eight men's teams entered in next week's beach volleyball competition at the Goodwill Games have advanced to the semi-finals of this weekend's FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event by winning two of three matches here Saturday (July 18).

The tandems of Guilherme Marques/Para Ferreira Souza of Brazil and Mark/Paul Laciga of Switzerland are the Goodwill Games entrants battling for the $32,000 first-place prize in the fifth FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event of the 1998 season.

Guilherme and Para, who are currently the No. 1 ranked team in the FIVB standings, face Javier Bosma and Fabio Diez of Spain in one of two semi-final matches here Sunday while the Lacigas challenge top-seeded Jose Loiola and Emanuel Rego of Brazil in the other match.

Both Guilherme/Para and the Lacigas had to win elimination matches Saturday by ousting the tandems of Joao Brenha/Luis Maia of Portugal (15-12 in 62 minutes) and Andrea Ghiurghi/Ricardo Lione of Italy (15-12 in 53 minutes), respectively.

Both the tandems of Bosma/Diez and Emanual/Loiola won both of their matches Saturday to advance to the semi-finals. Bosma and Diez advanced to Sunday's play with a 15-12 win over the Lacigas in 47 minutes while Emanual/Loiola earned a berth in the semis with a 15-4 win over Guilherme and Para in 44 minutes.

Other finishes for Goodwill Games teams here this weekend were a seventh by Ricci Luyties and Sinjin Smith of the United States, and 13ths by Martin Conde/Esteban Martinez of Argentina and Julien Prosser/Leo Zahner of Australia. Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway, the second-ranked FIVB team and the defending Goodwill Games Gold Medalists (1994 in St. Petersburg, Russia), were eliminated Friday from the Lignano event after winning only one of three matches to place 17th in the Italy competition.

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.

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.