Second gold to U.S. cyclist

An impressive ride in the 100km cycle event which gave American Jon Schmitz his second gold medal of the festival and top performances in the QE II Park swimming pool were features of the World Games for the Deaf yesterday.

Schmitz out-sprinted his rivals to take his title on the Halswell circuit.

In the first lap William Tindall (New Zealand) made a solo break on the field to lead by 27sec. One lap later he was still out in front by 26sec but this was cancelled out by the main bunch in the third lap.

After the first three laps averaged 13min 50sec the pace was increased to 12min 50sec in the next two laps.

It was in the fifth lap that the first significant move of the race occurred. Marc D’Hondt (Belgium), Glen Moran (Australia), Andrea Dissenga (Italy) and Sang Yang Lee (Korea) broke away from the field to lead by 14sec going into the sixth lap.

This quartet poured on the pace in the sixth lap to record the fastest lap of the race of 12min 21sec and increased their lead to 30sec.

The American team of Paul Wood, Jon Schmitz and Richard Machado stirred the main bunch into action during the ninth lap along with Luc Uzell (Belgium), Haruhiko Oda (Japan) and Giovanni Dollorenzo (Italy) and this group moved out to a 43sec advantage over the other riders at one stage. This effort was not sustained and by start of the tenth lap all riders were back into one group.

Little action occurred until the penultimate lap when the decisive break took place.

Giovanni Dollorenzo (Italy) the defending champion from the 1985 Deaf Games in Los Angeles sprinted away from the field with Jon Schmitz and Paul Wood (U.S.) and Gerald Troch (Belgium).

With the Italian rider working hard and this quartet established a lead of 43sec at the start of the last lap and appeared to have the race in their grasp.

In the long finishing straight down Kennedys Bush Rd Schmitz, who won the 1000m sprint gold, reaffirmed his sprint authority over the other riders to ease away to a 5m win. The contest for second place was hotly disputed with Dollorenzo finishing ahead of Wood.

Butterfly

Iris Weber (West Germany) sliced 0.5sec from her own 100 butterfly record set in Los Angeles four years ago, with a time of 1min 6.07sec.

Britain’s Martin Lee’s 2:28.39 for the 200m breaststroke also was a record and set him well ahead of the others in the final. He was a full 3sec in front of the next swimmer, the former record-holder Alan Turner, of Ireland.

Weber had to take second place to the popular Australian, Cindy-Lou Fitzpatrick, in the 100m breaststroke. Fitzpatrick swam 1:14.66 to break her own mark for the event by 0.24sec.

At the volleyball, Finland set itself up for tomorrow’s key match against Italy with a fine win over Japan after losing the first set, 9–15. It followed that up with 15–6, 15–7 and 15–5 wins to give it five wins at the tournament.

Italy has four wins and their clash at 1pm tomorrow at Cowles Stadium is eagerly awaited.

In other matches yesterday, Iran trounced New Zealand, 3–0 and West Germany showed sharp and overdue improvement to head off the United States, 3–2 (15–7, 9–15, 13–15, 15–4, 15–8).

At the basketball, also at Cowles Stadium, the New Zealand women beat Australia, 91–65, to notch the host country’s first win in the sport. New Zealand led 45–26 at half-time and is now in the running for the bronze medal.

In the other match played last night, the United States confirmed its favouritism for gold with a comfortable win over Sweden.

Other results:

SOCCER: Ireland 8, New Zealand 0; Netherlands 0, Italy 0.

ATHLETICS: Men’s decathlon — P. Smith (Aust) 7423; 1, M. Alessin (USSR) 6337; 2, A. Herman (U.S.) 5950; 3, S. Rosewig (West Germany) 5882; 4. (Previous world and games record 6952 points). Men’s hurdles final — H. Sherell (U.S.), E. Roberts (U.S.) 2, M. Dyjou (USSR) 3; 15.42sec. Women’s 100m hurdles final — J. Body (U.S.), 1, C. Johnston (U.S.) 2, M. Miandoso (USSR) 3; 15.54sec. Women’s high jump final — A. Diastu (USSR) 1, C. Johnston (U.S.) 2, E. Boen (Belgium) 3; 1.74m.

SWIMMING: Men’s 100m freestyle — D. Grigoriev (USSR) 1, A. Johnson (Great Britain) 2, R. Gershwind (U.S.) 3; 57.57sec. Women’s 100m butterfly — I. Weber (West Germany) 1, J. Lapias (Canada) 2, C. Lawler (U.S.) 3; 1:06.07. Men’s 200m breaststroke — M. Lee (Great Britain) 1, A. Turner (Ireland) 2, H. Mueller (West Germany) 3; 2:28.39. Women’s 100m breaststroke — C. Fitzpatrick (Australia) 1, I. Weber (West Germany) 2, A. Bishop (Australia) 3; 1:14.66. Men’s 4x200m freestyle relay — Great Britain 1, United States 2, USSR 3; 8:22.53.