THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 8 : Roundup : U.S. Men’s Volleyball Team Rallies to Beat France for 4th Win in Row

The U.S. men’s volleyball team beat France, 17-5, 15-6, 15-13, for their fourth consecutive victory in the Olympic preliminaries.

In a dramatic final game, the United States took a narrow early lead only to watch France catch tie, 8-8, then pull away to a 13-8 advantage. The U.S. team used tight blocking and forceful spikes to win the game, 15-13.

In the first game, France had tight blocking in a closely contested battle that went to 11 game points. Tied at 11-11, 12-12, 13-13, and 14-14, the United States overcame its slow start to prevail, 17-15.

In the second game, the U.S. team took control early and never let up.

Yachting--After four of seven Olympic races off Pusan, U.S. sailors lead in three classes, are second in two and apparently are out of contention for medals in the three others.

Three gold medals would match their unprecedented performance at Long Beach in 1984, when they won three golds and four silvers.

Mark Reynolds of San Diego, with crewman Hal Haenel of Hollywood, moved into first place in a tightly bunched Star fleet despite a fifth-place finish in light winds Friday.

“Mark really sailed a good tactical race,” said Dave Ullman, a U.S. team coach. “He beat the guys he had to beat.”

The first four are all within a point, with Reynolds leading at 32.0.

The winds varied from 7 to 12 knots on the four courses.

Allison Jolly of Valencia and crew member Lynne Jewelle of Newport, R.I., placed second but maintained a lead in the women’s 470 class over the Soviet team of Larissa Mopskalenko and Irinia Tchounikhovskaia, which won Friday.

In the Soling class, world champion John Kostecki of San Francisco, with crewmen Will Baylis of Carmel and Bob Billingham of Greenbrae, Calif., posted his second victory as the competition became a virtual match race for the gold against East Germans Jochen Schiemnann, Thomas Flach and Bernd Jaekel. John Shadden of Long Beach and crewman Charlie McKee of Seattle remain second in men’s 470 but missed an opportunity to move into the lead when they finished 11th Friday as leaders Thierry Peponnet and Luc Pillot of France placed 10th.

Shooting--Afanasi Kouzmine, a 41-year-old army major from the Soviet Union, won the gold medal and broke the world record in the men’s rapid-fire pistol event.

It was the Soviet Union’s fourth gold in the shooting competition. Kouzmine scored 698 points, 1 more than the previous record.

U.S. shooter John McNally was in second after the qualification rounds, but he faltered in the final shootoff and came in seventh.

Zoltan Kovacs of Hungary won the bronze. Kovacs had tied with Alberto Sevieri of Italy with 693 points each, but he was awarded the bronze as his last round of shots were better than the Italian’s.

McNally, a captain in the U.S. Army’s Marksmanship Unit, left the range soon after the final shootoff as groups of Americans shook their heads in disbelief.

Tor Heistad of Norway won the gold medal in the men’s running game target competition. Huang Shi-ping of China won the silver medal, and Guennadi Avramenko of the Soviet Union won the bronze.

Rowing--Britain’s Andrew Holmes and Steven Redgrave improved on their second-place finish in last year’s world championships to win the men’s coxless pairs. Dragos Neagu and Danut Dobre of Romania were second, while the bronze went to Yugoslavs Bojan Presern and Sadik Mujkic.

East German world champion Thomas Lange won the men’s single sculls final, finishing almost 5 seconds ahead of West German Peter Michael Kolbe. New Zealander Eric Verdonk finished third.

East Germany won the women’s coxed fours gold medal in 6 minutes 56.00 seconds. China took the silver, finishing in 6:58.78. Romania won the bronze in 7:01.13.

Tennis--Ken Flach and Robert Seguso of the United States won their opening doubles match, and Americans Pam Shriver and Zina Garrison added singles victories in the women’s event.

Women’s Field Hockey--The Netherlands and South Korea, the leading contenders in the tournament, won their second consecutive victories in the preliminary round.

The Dutch eleven, defending Olympic gold medalists, beat Britain, 5-1, and South Korea overpowered Canada, 3-1.

The Netherlands earned an easy victory behind four penalty corner goals by Lisanne Lejeune. She tied an Olympic women’s record for most goals in one match.

The U.S. team’s hope for medal became slimmer as the 1984 bronze medalists suffered their second setback in a row, losing, 2-1, to Argentina.

The U.S. goal was by Megan Donnelly.

Cycling--Erika Salumiaee of the Soviet Union defeated Connie Paraskevin-Young, 2-0, in the women’s match sprint.

Viatcheslav Ekimov, Artouras Kaspoutis, Dmitri Nelubine and Gintautas Umaras of the Soviet Union advanced to the semifinals of team pursuit after setting a world record of 4:16.10 in qualifications.

Paraskevin-Young, the three-time world champion, will battle Isabelle Gautheron of France for the bronze tonight.

U.S. cyclists have failed to win a single medal.

East Germany’s Christa Rothenburger-Luding defeated Gautheron, 2-1, in their best-of-three heat semifinal and is trying to become the first woman to win gold medals in the Winter and Summer Olympics. Earlier this year, she won gold and silver medals in speedskating at the Calgary Games.

The U.S. pursuit team of Dave Lettieri, Mike McCarthy, Leonard Harvey Nitz and Carl Sundquist finished ninth in 4:22.96 and did not qualify for the quarterfinals.

Australian cyclists Brett Dutton, Wayne McCarney, Stephen McGlade and Dean Woods set a world record in qualifying for the men’s 4,000-meter team pursuit in 4:16.32.

Fencing: Jean-Francois Lamour of France won his second consecutive fencing gold medal in men’s individual sabre with a 10-4 victory over Janusz Olech of Poland.

Giovanni Scalzo of Italy beat Philippe Delrieu of France, 10-2, to take the bronze.

Any hopes the United States had for a medal in the individual events ended earlier in the day. Steve Mormando of Jersey City, N.J., who had his best Olympics, lost to Gianfranco Dalla Barba of Italy in the direct eliminations.