THE GOODWILL GAMES : Salnikov Breaks Own Record in 800 Freestyle

Soviet swimmer Vladimir Salnikov broke his own 800-meter freestyle world record Friday, while Americans won the first two races on the opening day of the Goodwill Games.

Salnikov swam the distance in 7 minutes 50.64 seconds to surpass his earlier mark of 7:52.33, set in Los Angeles in 1983.

Soviet teammate Eduard Petrov was second in 8:00.96, and American Sean Killion took the bronze medal in 8:02.09.

John Sauerland, of Shaker Heights, Ohio, won the men’s 50-meter freestyle in 23.13 seconds, edging Gennady Prigoda (23.24) and Sergei Smiryagin (23.37), both of the Soviet Union.

Despite the victory, the U.S. filed a protest, contending that the start was too quick and faulty, and the Americans thought they could have finished 1-2-3 instead of 1-6-7.

“The entire field was standing up (at the starting line when the starter signaled the race to begin),” said Seldon Frutschner of the American delegation. “It was not a fair competition.”

The decision on the protest may not be known until today, and if it is upheld, the race will have to be contested again.

Earlier, American Angel Myers won the women’s 50-meter freestyle in 25.60 seconds, with American Kathy Coffin and Soviet Inna Abramova sharing second at 26.18.

The other Soviet victories were by Yelena Volkova in the women’s 200-meter breaststroke in 2:29.84, Dmitri Volkov in the men’s 200-meter breaststroke in 2:17.72, Vadim Yaroshchuk in the men’s 400-meter individual medley in 4:22.06 and its men’s 400-meter freestyle relay team in 3:20.77.

Noemi Lung of Romania was the day’s other gold medalist, taking the women’s 400-meter individual medley in 4:43.17.

Salnikov, who also will compete in next month’s World Championships at Madrid in three events--the 400, 800 and 1,500 freestyles--won the 800 easily.

“From the first 100 meters of the distance, I wanted to show a record time, so from the very start, I swam very fast,” Salnikov said through an interpreter.

“If I have surprised people by swimming so fast now, I’ll be using all my strength to try and set the record again (at Madrid).

“From the start, I knew that I didn’t have extremely close competition, so I was swimming against the clock. After every 100 meters, I was thinking my closest competitor was (going to swim) to 7:52.33 (the old mark).”

Myers, who is from Americus, Ga., and attends Furman University, was ecstatic about winning the first gold medal of the games, which will continue through July 20.

“I felt terrific,” she said. “We came here just to do our best. We never consider ourselves the second team,” she added.

The top 40 American swimmers were kept home to train for the World Championships.