Goodwill Games Roundup : U.S. Fill-In Boxers Win; Diver Mitchell Gets Bronze Medal

Two last-minute substitutes on the U.S. boxing team won their opening-round bouts against a pair of Irish national champions in the Goodwill Games Saturday, bolstering the weakened squad’s chances for a medal.

Lightweight Terrence Southerland scored a 5-0 decision over Ireland’s Thomas Tobin, and welterweight Ernesto Chavez downed William Walsh, a three-time Irish national champion, 4-1.

In other events, diver Michele Mitchell and the women’s volleyball team gave the United States bronze medals, but the Soviet Union continued to dominate the Games.

Soviet athletes have collected 47 gold medals and 128 medals overall, well ahead of the United States’ 31 golds and 90 total.

Southerland and Chavez were making their international debuts, and their performances came as a “pleasant surprise” to Coach Roosevelt Sanders.

“I was really surprised, especially for Southerland,” Sanders said. “I was pleased for him.”

Other team members chanted, “U-S-A, U-S-A,” from the stands at the Olympic complex arena as Chavez’s bout came to a close. The sparse Soviet crowd attempted to drown out the chant with whistles.

Earlier, Madagascar’s Jean Rakotomanga defeated Tyrone Washington of Washington, D.C., 4-1.

Southerland, of Cincinnati, failed to make the U.S. squad during the team’s final boxoff at training camp. He was asked to join the team as a replacement for one of nine military boxers barred from traveling to the games by a last-minute Pentagon decision.

“I only started boxing again a year ago after being out of fighting for four years,” he said. “It feels good to be back.”

In other matches involving U.S. boxers, Bernard Price of Muncie, Ind., won a medical walkover in the 119-pound class from no-show Mongolian Tserendorzhi Amarzhargal. Middleweight Parker White of Richmond, Calif., scored a 5-0 decision over Brazil’s Joze da Silva.

Light-heavyweight Harvey Richards of Springfield, Ill., stopped Tanzania’s Ruben Mkhere at 1:33 of the first round.

Five Soviet boxers also won.

The U.S. wrestling squad defeated Turkey, 8-2, with Olympian Dave Schultz pinning Burhan Sabanci at 4 minutes 4 seconds.

The Soviet wrestlers were even more impressive, scoring their second consecutive shutout, this time over Japan, 10-0. Eight of the 10 Soviet victories were by pin, including Adlan Varayev’s 22-second win over Yoshinobu Hirayama.

In Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, yachting got underway after heavy winds and rain forced an opening day cancellation Friday.

Soviet sailor Oleg Kohpersky won the first race, followed by Jaroslav Maciuk of Poland and Dirk Pittelkov of East Germany. American Buzz Reynolds was seventh.

In women’s platform diving, Mitchell finished third behind Soviets Andzhela Stasyulevich and Olga Blinova.

Mitchell said she was not satisfied with third place.

“It’s back to training again,” Mitchell said, predicting she would defeat her Soviet rivals in the world championships at Madrid next month.

“The Russians have beat me, and I have beat them, so it is a tug-of-war between us,” the Scottsdale, Ariz., diver said.

For the first time in a competition involving judges’ scores, an American coach complained about bias for the Soviet Union.

Scott Reich, men’s diving coach, disputed Kent Ferguson’s second-place finish in the springboard diving Friday.

“A lot of people would say Ferguson won that,” he said.

Soviet Nikolai Drouzhzhnin gained the gold medal with 646.14 points to Ferguson’s 643.32.

No formal protest was filed.

The U.S. women’s volleyball team defeated Japan, 16-14, 15-6, 15-11, for third place. Earlier in the week, the Japanese defeated the Americans in four games.

The Americans were trailing, 13-9, when Deitre Collins of Lancaster, Calif., came onto the court wearing a leg brace and sparked the team.

Collins has had knee surgery three times in the past five years.