THE SEOUL GAMES / DAY 12 : Roundup : Jolly Collects the Gold; Reynolds Settles for Silver as Mast Breaks

U.S. sailors Allison Jolly of Valencia and Mark Reynolds of San Diego went into their final races leading their classes, with good chances to win gold medals unless their masts fell down.

Guess what?

Jolly and crew Lynne Jewell of Newport, R.I., got their gold, but the mast on Reynolds’ star boat did fall down, and all he and crew Hal Haenel of Hollywood could do was watch helplessly as Britain’s Michael McIntyre and Philip Bryn Vaile placed first to beat them with 45.7 points to 48. Reynolds and Haenel settled for silver.

The mast on Jolly’s 470 dinghy stayed up in the fierce 30-knot winds and large, steep waves that several sailors described as “survival conditions,” but she had a bad few minutes when the headsail started to come down after a small wire at the top of the sail parted.

Jolly said by phone from Pusan that they were sailing in third place as cautiously as possible to protect their big lead in the series. All they needed was 14th or better to win the first all-women’s sailing title in the Olympics.

While Jolly steered, Jewell used a small piece of line to fix the problem. In 5 minutes they dropped to 15th but eventually finished 9th--still well ahead of world champions Marit Soderstrom and Birgitta Bengtsson of Sweden in the standings, 26.7 to 40, to claim the United States’ only gold medal in sailing.

Other American medalists were John Kostecki of San Francisco, with crew Bob Billingham of Greenbrae, Calif., and Will Baylis of Carmel, a silver in soling; John Shadden of Long Beach and Charlie McKee of Seattle, a bronze in men’s 470, and Mike Gebhardt of Ft. Walton Beach, Fla., a bronze in sailboard.

Reynolds said: “We sailed pretty conservatively. We could have had better breaks.”

They needed a fifth to win the gold and were running a close 10th downwind before the final leg when their backstay gave way and the mast fell forward over the bow, then broke at the spreaders.

Kostecki, the soling world champion, led from start to finish but, in the wild conditions, was unable to prevent East Germany’s Jochen Schuemann from grabbing the second he needed to claim the gold. Kostecki felt the wild conditions precluded him sailing tactically to sit on Schuemann’s wind and let another boat slip between them.

Andy Kostanecki, chairman of the Olympic Yachting Committee, said, “When you consider we were 11,000 miles from home this time and the East Germans and Soviets were competing, I think this team was every bit as successful as the last one.”

Soccer: Brazil and the Soviet Union each fought their way back from the brink of defeat to advance to the championship game with dramatic overtime victories.

Brazil, the defending silver medalist, trailed West Germany, 1-0, with 11 minutes to play at Seoul’s Olympic Stadium. Holger Fach had scored for the West Germans in the 50th minute. But a tying goal from striker Romario sent the game into extra time, which was scoreless, and a penalty shoot-out, which the Brazilians won, 3-2.

Brazil’s 22-year-old goalkeeper, Claudio Taffarel, kept his team in the match with 9 minutes left when he stopped Wolfgang Funkel’s penalty shot. A descendant of German immigrants, Taffarel also saved two spot kicks in the penalty shoot-out.

The Soviet Union had a tough match against Italy in the other semifinal played at Pusan, eventually winning, 3-2, after extra time. Antonio Virdis put Italy ahead in the 50th minute. Igor Dobrovolski tied the match in the 78th minute.

Arminas Narbekovas scored in the 93rd minute, and Alexei Mikhailichenko secured the win in the 107th when Italy was reduced to 10 men after defender Ciro Ferrara was sent off for a foul. Andrea Carnevale narrowed the gap for Italy seconds from the final whistle.

The Soviets, who won the 1956 tournament and took bronze medals in 1972, 1976 and 1980, play Brazil in the gold-medal match Saturday. Italy meets West Germany in the bronze-medal game Friday.

Equestrian: West German Nicole Uphoff, a relative newcomer to international equestrian competition, finished far ahead of the pack and won the dressage individual gold medal.

Uphoff and her mount, Rembrandt 24, were last in the field of 19 to take to the course, but finished 59 points ahead of silver medalist Margitt Otto-Crepin of France, riding Corlandus. The Uphoff, 21, scored 1,521 points and Otto-Crepin 1,462 points.

The bronze was won by World Cup champion Christine Stueckelberger of Switzerland with 1,417 points on Gauguin De Lully.

Robert Dover of Gladstone, N.J., riding Federleicht, finished 13th. Jessica Ransehousen of Unionville, Pa., placed 17th.

Weightlifting: Yuri Zakharevitch of the Soviet Union broke two of his world records in winning a gold medal in the 242-pound class.

Zakharevitch set a world record by lifting a total of 1,001 pounds. He set another world record in the snatch by lifting 451 pounds and then 462 pounds.

Six of the competitors surpassed the previous Olympic record in the snatch in a round that left Jozsef Jasco of Hungary with a silver medal and Ronny Weller of East Germany with a bronze.

Canoe and kayak: It was a good day for United States athletes as Mike Herbert of Rogers, Ark., became the first American man to qualify for the final in the 500-meter single kayak event.

U.S. athletes qualified for the final in three other events and were eliminated in two.

Traci Phillips, 25, of Newport Beach, will race in the women’s K-1 500-meter final.

The two Terrys--Terry White of Manchester Village, Vt., and Terry Kent of Rochester, N.Y.--qualified for the final in K-2 500.

Sheila Conover of Newport Beach and Cathy Marino-Geers of Huntington Beach qualified for the final in the women’s K-2.

They finished third in their heat to the strong East German team of Birgit Schmidt and Anke Nothnagel and the Soviet Union entry. The Germans were timed in 1:46.62 and the Americans finished in 1:54.16.

James Terrell of Milford, Ohio, was eliminated in the C-1 500 meter event.

Rod McClain of Meriden, N.H., and Bruce Merritt of Ridge, Md., were eliminated in the C-2 500 meters.