Defending Champions Upset - Canadian Olympic Medalists Down USA Rivals in Thursday's Beach Volleyball Match

NEW YORK, N. Y. - Martin Conde and Esteban Martinez of Argentina won their second men's beach volleyball match of the 1998 Goodwill Games here Thursday (July 23) while Canadians John Child and Mark Heese posted their first win as the third session of play concluded at Wollman Rink in the Central Park.

Thursday's afternoon session was delayed for 90 minutes due to rain after Conde and Martinez upset Norway's Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide 16-14 in a 79-minute, 105-sideout match. The Argentina tandem took an 11-9 lead 56 minutes into the match before Kvalheim and Maaseide, the third-ranked team on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour, rallied to take a 14-13 edge with 63 minutes gone in the match.

Conde and Martinez, who won an FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event last month in Toronto, Canada, scored the final three points of the match with a pair of Conde kills sealing the Argentina tandems' 10th win in 18 meetings with Kvalheim and Maaseide.

After the rain-delay, Child and Heese led from the start to down Ricci Luyties (San Diego) and Sinjin Smith (Pacific Palisades, Calif.) of the United States 15-5.  The Canadians won the Bronze Medal at the 1996 Atlanta Olympic Games.

Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira of Brazil, the top-rated team on the 1998 FIVB World Tour, face the United States' Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly at 6:45 p.m. Thursday at Wollman Rink in another battle of unbeaten teams in Group A.

Thursday's other match has Martin and Paul Laciga of Switzerland playing Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner of Australia in a Group B round-robin match at 5:30 p.m. Round-robin pool play concludes Friday at Wollman Rink with the final four preliminary matches.

The top two teams in each pool advance to Saturday's semi-finals. The Goodwill Games men's beach volleyball competition is a sanctioned event on the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour and features $100,000 in prize money.  The Goodwill Games' men's Gold and Bronze medal matches will be Sunday starting at 12 p.m.