The reigning world champions kept a hold on the top spots, but the United States is closing fast at the 1998 Goodwill Games, July 19-20 at the Goodwill Games Aquatic Center on Long Island, N.Y. Russia earned a technical team routine score of 98.600 to lead the event by more than a full point over the United States. Team USA’s routine score of 97.467 marks the highest technical routine score for the United States since the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta. Japan is third at 97.200. "I liked the routine swim today, but it is required elements, like a job," said Russia’s Olga Medvedeva. "We are looking forward to tomorrow because the artistic routine lets us perform for the crowd." Russia’s world champion duet of Olga Brousnikina and Maria Kisseleva earned the day’s highest duet technical score of 98.800, but Team USA’s mixed duet of Bill May and Kristina Lum is not far behind at 98.067. Japan’s Miya Tachibana and Miho Takeda, the World Championships silver medalists, earned a mark of 96.533 for third.

"We had a really great run - an awesome time," said May about the duet’s "Rock Around The Clock" routine. "For tomorrow, we are going to swim as strongly as we can and hope for the best."

May and Lum have only competed together twice in history. The pair began training together in September of 1997, and won the Jantzen National Championships duet title on May 2, 1998.

The United States is traditionally stronger in the free routine event than the technical routine event. At the 1997 World Cup, the United States stood in seventh place after the technical event, but finished in fifth place following a free routine which earned the fourth best score. The 1996 U.S. Olympic Team earned a perfect score in the free routine to capture the gold medal.

Team USA is currently emerging from a rebuilding phase. The full retirement of the 1996 Olympic Team cost the United States at the 1997 World Cup where the U.S. placed fifth in team. A third-place finish at the recent World Championships have opened the door for the U.S. to not only medal, but with a strong free routine swim Monday, to possibly win the 1998 Goodwill Games. Technical routine scores count for 35 percent of an entry’s final score. The free routine events, which take place Monday, are weighted to 65 percent for a total possible final score of 100.