Johnson/Kiraly Net Second at Belmar Event

BELMAR, N. J. - Adam Johnson and Karch Kiraly, one of two teams from the United States entered in the men's beach volleyball at the 1998 Goodwill Games, netted a second-place here Sunday (July 19) in an Association of Volleyball Professional event.

Second-seeded Kent Steffes and Mike Whitmarsh scored an 11-4 and 9-7 win over top-seeded Johnson and Kiraly in the 32-team single-elimination event on Belmar Beach. The winners split the $10,000 first-place prize while Johnson and Kiraly shared $5,700 for second.

The win was Steffes' 110th of his AVP career. Sinjin Smith, who is competing in the 1998 Goodwill Games on the second United States tandem with Ricci Luyties, has posted 139 AVP victories. Kiraly, who has posted three AVP wins this season with Johnson, has 133 AVP wins.

Johnson and Kiraly are scheduled for a 10 a.m. (EDT) practice Tuesday (July 21) at Wollman Rink followed by Luyties and Smith at 11 a.m. Martin Conde and Esteban Martinez of Argentina will train at 12 p.m. Tuesday with Jan Kvalheim and Bjorn Maaseide of Norway, the 1994 Goodwill Games men's beach volleyball champions, scheduled to hit the Wollman sand at 2 p.m.

Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira Souza of Brazil, who captured the FIVB Beach Volleyball World Tour event Sunday in Lignano, Italy, are scheduled to practice at 5 p.m. Tuesday. The top-ranked team in the world, the Brazilians downed Mark Laciga and Paul Laciga of Switzerland 12-6 and 12-8 Sunday to win their first FIVB event of the season. The Laciga will test the Wollman court at 3 p.m. Tuesday followed by Julien Prosser and Leo Zahner of Australia at 4 p.m.

The Canadian tandem of John Child/Mark Heese, who have not confirmed a practice time for Tuesday, might be the home "sand" favorite as the 491 tons of "Hutcheson V" sand was trucked in last week from Huntsville, Ontario, Canada.

Johnson/Kiraly's 1998 Finishes