St. Louis Post-Dispatch from St. Louis, Missouri • Page 22

3 AUG 31990 8D SPORTS ST. LOUIS POST-DISPATCH FRIDAY, AUGUST 3,1990 GOODWILL GAMES AUTO RACING U.S. Women Hope No. 40 Is Golden MrTiTTrtMiklH Viti i Ws2a tr 4 Lr- GDR'S GOODBYE The 1 990 Goodwill Games marks the end of the German Democratic Republic, alias East Germany, as an athletic entity. Most East German sports federations are scheduled to disband in the fall, as a soon-to-be reunited Germany prepares to send one team to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, Spain.

AP Al Unser is removed from his car after it crashed in a practice session Thursday for the Marlboro 500 on Sunday. Lai rrTW A AP Australia. Edwards said, "She wanted to punch me and I told her to go ahead and do it. If somebody was going to get kicked out, it was going to be worth it. But I didn't want to go because Coach Grentz would have killed me." Hurley called the near-fight an inevitable result of what he called lax officiating.

In their first two games in Seattle, the Americans were just three for 13 from 3-point range, and Edwards was only two for 8. But the U.S. shooters made eight of 14 against Australia, including two for three by Cynthia Cooper and two for four by Jennifer Azzi. "The way we shot last night against the Soviet Union, I wasn't surprised Australia packed it in against us," Grentz said. "But we have some people who can stick it." In Saturday's semifinals, the United States will face the loser of Thursday's Brazil-Bulgaria game.

Boxing: Sergio Reyes, at 119 pounds, Tim Austin, 112, and Raul Marquez, 147, each advanced to the gold medal finals this weekend with victories over Soviet fighters Wednesday night. Two American boxers, Tony Gonzalez and Rudolph Bradley, lost close, unpopular decisions. Gonzalez called his 3-2 loss to Sera-fim Todorov of Bulgaria "bank robbery," and Bradley said "I thought I won every round" against Dzhambu-lat Mutayev of the Soviet Union. Reyes defeated Vladislav Antonov 3-2, Austin stopped Yesbolat Nur-manoy at 2:34 of the third round, and Marquez scored a 4-1 decision over Vladimir Yereschenko. Soviet fighters lost six of nine bouts Wednesday, dropping to 22-10 overall, while the United States stood at 19-12 after the first round of semifinals.

In Thursday night's fights, Williams had perhaps the toughest opponent in world light heavyweight champion Andrei Kurnyavka of the Soviet Union. SEATTLE (AP) A fistful of American boxers challenged the world Thursday at the Goodwill Games, while the world had its hands full with the U.S. women's basketball team. They've won 39 in a row since beating the Soviets at the 1986 Goodwill Games in Moscow, and now they've taken dead aim at the gold medal in Seattle. The U.S.

women, who won their second world championship only two weeks ago, beat the Soviets 86-78 Wednesday night, four years after breaking their 28-year hold on the sport. The U.S. women followed that with a 103-80 victory over Australia on Thursday. "We didn't go into the summer to win just one gold," U.S. coach Theresa Grentz said.

Three Americans fought their way into the boxing finals, and nine more had a chance Thursday night, including 17-year-old whiz kids Oscar de la Hoya and Jeremy Williams. Also Thursday night, action got under way in figure skating and women's 1-meter springboard diving. Basketball: The U.S. team shot 60 percent from the field, including nine for 16 from 3-point range, as the Australians crowded the basket to make the Americans shoot from outside. "I've seen them play two games, and I could count the number of baskets they'd scored outside the key on one hand," Australian coach Adrian Hurley said.

"Everything was inside with either their power game or their transition. I decided we had to take their strength away from them and make them play from outside, and they did. "They hit 3-pointer after 3-pointer." Teresa Edwards, a member of the 1988 U.S. Olympic gold medal team, sank four of six 3-pointers in a game that featured some heated exchanges between American and Australian players, including a near-fight between Edwards and Michele Tims of I Unser Is Injured In Practice Run ears' Lap Fastest: 221 mph The impending unification has manifested itself in two ways: a hot market for East Germany memorabilia, and an uncharacteristically mediocre performance by the East German athletes. East German collectors' pins are hotter than sauerkraut.

Asking price: $20. East German pins were the first to sell out in the athletes village. Six days into the Games, 5,700 pins had been grabbed up there. But while East Germany is a hot item on souvenir stands, it has only been lukewarm in the athletic arena. Through Wednesday, East Germany had won 40 medals, including 10 gold.

The nation ranks third behind fhe Soviet Union with 146 and the United States with 1 31 but has fallen far short of expectations. Most shocking was the dismal performance of the East German female swimmers, who have dominated the sport since the 1970s and the days of Kornelia Ender. The East German women won only one individual gold medal and lost the 1 00-meter freestyle for the first time in a major competition since 1972. CUBAN HEAVYWEIGHT No Cuban athlete at the Goodwill Games has attracted more attention than heavyweight Felix Savon, who was inspired to become a boxer by Katrina McClain rebounds over Australia's Rachel Sporn (15) and Karen Dal-ton. The U.S.

won 103-80. his renowned countryman, three-time Olympic champion Teofilo Stevenson. One reason that Savon, 22, has received so much attention is because he has not received any attention at the Summer Olympics. In 1 988, when he would have been favored to win the gold medal, Cuba boycotted. Savon's critics say that he is a puncher instead of a boxer who is not satisfied with a decision, risking losses by going after knockouts even when he is far ahead on points.

Perhaps that is the reason his record is a mere 217-9. Roosevelt Sanders, a U.S. coach, said Savon would be ranked between fifth and 10th in the heavyweight division if he turned pro. Williams BROOKLYN, Mich. (AP) Track recordholder Rick Mears ran a lap at 221.682 mph and Al Unser Sr.

was hurt in a crash Thursday at Michigan International Speedway in the opening practice for Sunday's Marlboro 500. Mears, who set the track qualifying mark of 223.401 in 1986, was easily the fastest driver in the crash-punctuated session on the two-mile oval. The 51-year-old Unser, a four-time Indianapolis 500 winner, suffered a broken collarbone, broken right thigh and fractured ribs when his Alfa Romeo-powered Lola crashed after an apparent suspension failure. Unser, who remained conscious and alert throughout, was taken to a hospital in Jackson, then was scheduled to be taken by air to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for surgical repair of his leg injury. Al Unser who saw only the aftermath of his father's accident from the cockpit of his Lola-Chevrolet, turned the second-fastest lap of the day 221.682 just before the end of the practice.

"I didn't know who it was when I first saw that something definitely dug a line in the asphalt all the way up to the wall," said the younger Unser, the current CART-PPG point leader. "When I saw it was dad, I slowed down quite a lot and I saw his head moving. "The right front tire was right up against his hip area, but there was no hole made by the tire in the tub. It didn't look too serious when I went by." He later got out of his race car long enough to talk with his father in the ambulance before it left the track. "I asked him if he knew where he was, and he did; and I asked him what happened and he said, 'The car He's just in a lot of pain, but he's got the best doctors in the world taking care of him." Pat Patrick, owner of the team that fields cars for both the elder Unser and Guerrero, said the debut of the team's new Lolas left them in limbo.

"Something broke in the car," he said. "CART officials, Lola people and our team are looking over the car, but we haven't determined the cause of the crash. We'll look over everything on both Al's car and Roberto's car." Assuming his father was going to be all right, Little Al concentrated on business late in the practice. "My car is working really good," he said. "This was the best my car ever came off the trailer at Michigan.

And there's still quite a bit left." Mears is usually quick here, having won the pole for this race twice in the last four years. The first of two rounds of time trials is scheduled today, with the pole and the rest of the up-front positions for Sunday's race up for Bobby Rahal, the younger Unser's teammate, was third fast Thursday at 221.426, followed by defending series champion Emerson Fittipaldi at 221.300 and teammates Mario and Michael Andretti, the defending race champion, both at 220.399. Rounding out the top 10 in practice were Indianapolis 500 winner Arie Luyendyk, who did light damage to his car in a crash after running 220.183; John Andretti at 219.235; Kevin Cogan 219.479; and Danny Sullivan 219.071. vf4 of her father, Charles. "When I was 6, he said, don't just want her in the pool all the time.

I want her to do a lot of other said Williams, who moved to California when she was 14 to concentrate on diving. "He got me into gymnastics, and I played Softball, soccer and basketball, too. "But I can't do anything else now. I'm totally uncoordinated out of the water." That shouldn't be a problem for at least two years. Williams figures to be on a liquid diet of competition until then, which is all the more reason she was smart to indulge in a little time off last fall.

"It seems like I've had a major meet every two weeks, she said. "And it'll be pretty much like that all the way to the Olympics." She also plans to get back on the 3-meter springboard, an event she did not qualify in for the Goodwill Games. The 3-meter was a casualty of her recent layoff. "When I went to Miami, I wanted to just dive collegiately, get school paid for and meet some people," she said. "At that time, I just dove springboard.

There was no need to compete nationally." Being a national and then international contender took its toll on her mind, she said. That had a lot to do with the long layoff in '86. "I started diving for fun, without having to be the best in the world," she said. "And guess what? I started diving better than ever." While a youngster in the Pattonville school district, she followed her sisters into diving, partly at the nudging sponsor, because she still is just scraping by on the amateur diving circuit. "It came out like I was whining or something," she said.

"I didn't mean that. It's just that we can't dive and get paid. In diving, amateur still means amateur. It's not like skiing or some of the other sports. You can get paid to do an ad, but you can't get paid to dive." It's hard to believe that someone as personable and photogenic as Williams can't land a national sponsor.

She has done some modeling and some public speaking, but basically has not been able to cash in on being named "the great Aamerican body" by Mademoiselle magazine two years ago. That's why she intends to return to the University of Miami (Fla.) to finish her last semester of work toward her psychology degree. "I do have a couple of different ideas," Williams said. "I'm interested in commentating. And when all the smoke has cleared, and I've got my degree, I'd like to get into holistic healing and massage therapy." From page one "I've sort of been training on the road," she said.

"I'd like a little more preparation for international competition. But it hasn't hurt me up to now. "I feel good. Oh, there's a couple of small, nagging injuries. But what athlete doesn't have small, nagging injuries?" The new, improved, revived Will-; iams now looks forward to major competitions, such as the Goodwill get-.

together. "I love going to meets now," she said. "That's like a break for me. That's the funnest part of diving now. It's kind of flip-flopped.

"In the past, training was fun and meets were kind of a drag." This meet, which brings together the top eight divers in the world, is a reunion of sorts. The platform field also features two Chinese divers, including '88 Olympic gold medalist Xu Yanmei, and the top two Soviet divers. Obviously, Williams would like to dominate such a distinguished field. "That would be great," she said with a laugh. "But it'll be fun just seing everybody again.

They're all really nice people. I never go up with the intent to kick butt. "I just want to dive as well as I can and improve on the last one." Williams wanted to clarify a syndi-; cated feature story on her from the Sports Festival. She was quoted as say-; ing that she still is looking for a major IP Kevin Horrigan Roadtests The Porsche 911 Carrera Cabriolet Football Baseball Advisory Service GET THE FACTS Preseason Special 1-800-331-3762 The moment I slipped behind the wheel of the puis red Porsche convertible on the Plaza Motors' lot, a strange sensation swept over me. I felt ridiculous.

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The people at Plaza Motors have a weird sense of humor. "Drive it for a few daysr they said. "Just let us know what you think." I turn the key and the engine starts growling like Dan Dierdorf when he's hungry. I let out the clutch and drive carefully very carefully-out of the Plaza lot onto Olive Boulevard. Immediately I sense the reaction of the drivers "The last vehicle I was in that WOULD GO 162 MILES AN HOUR HAD "TWA" STENCILED ON THE SIDE." around me.

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