Goodwill Games Roundup : Soviets Collect Seven Golds in Gymnastics

The only Goodwill Games gold medals awarded Tuesday were in gymnastics, and the Soviets collected most of them.

Valentin Mogilny and Valentin Korolyev each won three golds. Mogilny won the pommel horse with 19.80 points, and tied for the gold in the rings and parallel bars with scores of 19.80 and 19.65, respectively. Korolyev shared the rings gold, and North Korea’s Chon Hon Li grabbed a share of the parallel bars title.

Korolyev also won the horizontal bar with 19.80 points and the floor exercise with 19.70. Teammate Valeri Lyukin took the vault gold with 19.425.

Earlier in the games, the Soviet men won gold medals in the all-around team and individual gymnastics competition.

The United States, the 1984 Olympic champions, failed to get a single medal in gymnastics. The best performance by a gymnast from the United States was a fifth-place tie by Philip Cahoy on the parallel bars.

The Soviets’ seven gold medals increased their overall total of medals to 154, including 66 golds. The United States is a distant second in both categories, with 99 medals and 34 golds.

In tennis, two American women surprisingly reached the singles’ final, with victories over Soviets. Caroline Kuhlman of Lakeside Park, Ky., outlasted the Soviets’ top player, Larisa Savchenko, 6-2, 3-6, 6-4, while Beverly Bowes of Lubbock, Tex., defeated Svetlana Parkhomenko, 6-1, 6-1.

The men’s singles final today will pit Andrei Chesnokov of the Soviet Union against Marjan Vajda of Czechoslovakia. In the semifinals, Chesnokov beat Brad Pearce of Provo, Utah, 6-1, 7-5, and Vajda overcame Alexander Zverev of the Soviet Union, 4-6, 7-5, 6-2.

In men’s doubles, the team of Jay Berger of Plantation, Fla., and Kelly Jones of San Diego joined Pearce and Luke Jensen of East Grand Rapids, Mich., in the semifinals.

Kuhlman and Ronni Reis of Miami advanced to the women’s doubles semifinals.

In volleyball, the American team reached the semifinals with a 15-7, 15-10, 15-13 victory over Japan.

And in team handball, both American teams lost, the men to the Soviet Union, 23-19, and the women to Hungary, 21-12.