THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 7 : Roundup : Paraskevin-Young Closer to Medal With Easy Win in Sprint Cycling

Connie Paraskevin-Young took another step toward the first U.S. medal in cycling and Gintautas Umaras won the Soviet Union’s second gold Thursday.

Paraskevin-Young, trying to regain the title of the world’s best female sprinter, breezed past China’s Zhou Suying to reach the semifinals of the first-ever women’s Olympic match sprint competition.

Umaras won the men’s individual pursuit with a time of 4 minutes 32 seconds for 12 laps around the 333.33-meter hardwood track at the Olympic Velodrome.

Australia’s Dean Woods, timed in 4:35, took the silver medal and East Germany’s Bernd Dittert won the bronze.

Paraskevin-Young advanced with a 2-0 record in her quarterfinal matches, in which riders are timed over the last 200 meters.

The men’s match sprint semifinals are also set for tonight with East Germany’s Lutz Hesslich, Britain’s Edward Alexander, Australia’s Gary Neiwand and the Soviet Union’s Nikolai Kovche still in the running for the gold medal.

Hesslich, Neiwand and Kovche won quarterfinal matches against West Germany’s Frank Weber, Czechoslovakia’s Vratislav Sustr and Trinidad’s Maxwell Cheesman. Alexander beat Erik Schoefs of Belgium in three heats.

Fencing: Anja Fichtel won the gold medal and spearheaded a sweep in women’s individual foil competition for West Germany’s young fencers.

Fichtel defeated her teammate, Sabine Bau, in the final, 8-5. Bau won the silver.

Zita Funkenhauser, also of West Germany, won the bronze.

Earlier in the day, several U.S. hopefuls saw their dreams of a medal put on hold for another 4 years.

Peter Westbrook, 37, of New York, an 11-time national champion, was eliminated in the third round of the individual sabre.

Another disappointment for the United States was in women’s individual foil. Caitlin Bilodeaux, 23, from Concord, Mass., failed to get into the direct eliminations, eliminated by Sun Hongyun of China. Bilodeaux, who won the the gold medal in the 1987 Pan Games, was considered the U.S.’s best hope for a medal.

Also eliminated in the first round of men’s individual sabre was Michael Loften of Hemstead, N. Y. Teammate Steve Mormundo of Jersey City, N. J., is still alive and will fence in the direct eliminations today.

Water Polo: Terry Schroeder scored four goals as the U.S. team overpowered China, 14-7.

“The Chinese aren’t as strong physically as some of the other teams. We were able to move them around,” said Schroeder, the team captain and a veteran of the silver medal-winning 1984 team.

He said the U.S. team is recovering emotionally from Thursday’s loss to Spain.

“That hurt a lot,” said Schroeder, a chiropracter from Santa Barbara. “For those of us that played on the ’84 team, that was our first loss in Olympic competition.”

He said the Spaniards are “very beatable. I just hope we get the chance in the medal round.”

The Americans started slowly against the Chinese, showing flashes of brilliance and then allowing their opponents to score easy goals.

Schroeder backhanded a pair of goals from two meters in the early minutes of the second quarter. The Chinese began keying on Schroeder, and that opened the door for other scorers.

He added two more goals in the fourth period, both times with a defender draped over his shoulders.

Jody Campbell and Michael Evans each had three goals for the Americans, and Alan Mouchawar had two. Doug Kimbell of Orange and Ed Klass each had one.

“I’m very pleased about our play in the second half,” said Bill Barnett, the U.S. coach. “But we were ragged in the first half.”

“We let them have a couple goals they shouldn’t have had,” Barnett said. “I think we played with a lot more intensity and intelligence than yesterday. Yesterday was an absolute disaster.”

The win boosts the American’s record to 2-1, while China falls to 0-3.

Spain remains the only unbeaten team in the B group. West Germany is unbeaten in the A division.

Women’s field hockey: Lisanne Lejeune scored four goals as the Netherlands stayed on target to retain it’s title. Sophie von Weiler’s goal with three minutes left in the game completed a 5-1 victory.

Cambridge mathmatics teacher Vicky Dixon scored Britain’s only goal from a 32nd-minute penalty stroke.

The Netherlands is almost certain to reach the final four, while Britain must beat the United States to stand a chance of going through from Group A.

Greco-Roman wrestling: Mikhail Mamiachvili of the Soviet Union overwhelmed Tibor Komaromi of Hungary for the gold medal in the 82-kilogram (180 pounds) division.

The Soviet Union dominated the last day of competition. Levon Djoulfalakian earned one in the 68-kilogram (150 pounds) class. Alexandre Kareline beat Bulgarian Ranguel Guerovski, 5-3, in the 130-kilogram (296 pounds) division.

South Korea’s Kim Sang Kyu rallied to edge Norway’s Arild Stig Kleven, 6-5, for the bronze medal.

Tomas Johansson of Sweden, who lost a silver medal in 1984 when he failed a drug test, won the bronze medal after Hassan Elhadad of Egypt was disqualified after three cautions.

Shooting: Malcolm Cooper of Britain defended his gold medal in small bore rifle shooting and teammate Allan Alister placed second.

Kirill Ivanov of the Soviet Union won the bronze.

Alister, 44, had 1,181 points after the qualifying rounds, a point ahead of Cooper. Their scores broke the Olympic record of 1,173 set by the Soviet Union’s Victor Vlasov at the 1980 Moscow Olympics, and placed them far ahead of the other six finalists.

Rowing: Three-time single sculls gold-medal winner Pertti Karppinen was eliminated from competition after finishing last in his semifinals race.

The 35-year-old Finnish star won the Olympic gold at Montreal in 1976, Moscow in 1980 and Los Angeles in 1984.

While Karppinen finished sixth, his rival, Peter-Michael Kolbe of West Germany won the heat.

Four U.S. boats qualified during semifinals and five had qualified earlier in the preliminaries.

Semifinals were delayed 6 hours because of high winds on the Han River Regatta Course. Shortly after the semifinals started, disaster struck for an Austrian boat, the coxless pair.

The U.S. coxless pair boat, manned by Kurt Bausback of San Diego and Ed Ives of Hamilton, Mass., rammed the Austrian shell and it sank.

The U.S. boat, warming up for the next race, had strayed into the starting area shortly before the collision.

Bausback and Ives were able to repair their boat and raced. They finished fifth and didn’t make the finals.

The Austrians raced in a borrowed boat and didn’t make the finals either.

Yachting: Two Americans took over first place by edging entries from Sweden and Finland.

Allison Jolly of Valencia, and Lynne Jewell of North Hollywood moved into strong gold-medal contention in the women’s 470 Class, making its debut in the regatta on Suyong Bay in Pusan.

Jolly, a computer programmer, commanded the moderate 12-knot winds sweeping the course to cross the finish ahead of Finland’s Bettina Lemstrom and West Germany’s Susanne Meyer.

After finishing first, the U.S. soling team headed by World Champion John Kostecki of Alameda, dropped to second in the overall standings after a disappointing fifth-place finish behind Argentina, West Germany, Sweden and Brazil.

Mark Reynolds of San Diego, and Hal Haenel of Hollywood, crossed the finish first in the Star Class, two-man keelboats that are so brutal to sail they’ve earned the nickname “torture racks.”

New Zealand’s Bruce Kendall knocked Mike Gebhardt of Ft. Walton Beach, Fla. out of first place in boardsailing.

France’s Jean-Yves Le Deroff and Nicolas Henard sliced through the water in the Tornado, the fastest off all the Olympic sailing craft, for a comfortable overall lead over New Zealand and Brazil.

Americans Peter Melvin and Pat Muglia, both of Long Beach, were forced to retire from the race when the cup at the bottom of the mast fractured.

In the Flying Dutchmen competition, Denmark’s J. Bojsen-Holler and C. Gronborg beat New Zealand and Norway.

Baseball: South Korea clinched a semifinal spot by beating Australia, 2-1, and eliminating the Aussies from the demonstration event.

A triple by center fielder Baek Jae-woo, with two out in the bottom of the 10th, lifted the Koreans’ to the win.

Baek, the Korean lead-off hitter, hit a fastball from Australian pitcher Parris Mitchell into the gap in right-center field and stretched it into a triple when second baseman Greg Harvey bobbled the throw.

“He steps right into the bucket when he swings,” complained the 27-year-old Mitchell, who plays club baseball plays for Melville Braves. “I threw a fastball right down the pike and he hit the hell out of it.”

The next batter, catcher Kim Tae-Hyung, slapped a hanging inside slider into left field just beyond the reach of diving left fielder Matthew Sheldon-Collins to drive in the winning run.