SWIMMING / SANTA CLARA INVITATIONAL : Soviet Olympic Prospects Improve as Two Beat Biondi in the 100

At the Goodwill Games last summer, the coaching staff from the Soviet Union grew weary of watching Matt Biondi beat their sprint freestylers. On Sunday, they saw the tables turned when Alexander Popov came from behind to beat Biondi in the 100-meter freestyle at the 24th Santa Clara International Swim Meet.

Popov caught Biondi, the world record-holder, with 20 meters remaining in the race and left him in his wake for a meet record of 50.44 seconds, well under the 51.06 Germany’s Nils Rudolph set last year.

Biondi, of Castro Valley, Calif., dropped to third with a 51.55 behind Venamin Taianovitch of the Soviet Union in 51.49.

The 6-foot-6 Popov has developed a stroke that requires fewer arm pulls per lap than most world-class swimmers. At this time last year his specialty was backstroke and he was not among the best Soviets.

All of that changed when Soviet Coach Gennagi Touretski decided that Popov was not only a freestyler, but the one who could challenge Biondi--who won five gold medals in the 1988 Olympic Games.

“All we needed was a swimmer against Biondi in the 400 medley relay,” said Touretski, whose relay teams earned slight leads at the Goodwill Games and the 1991 World Championships only to have them erased by Biondi on the anchor leg.

“We hope to prepare Alexander for the Olympics because we have three good parts of the relay, backstroke, breaststroke, and butterfly, but on the freestyle Biondi has been too tough.”

The Americans won only two of the 10 individual events on Sunday and seven of the 26 overall. The Soviets won 11 individual gold medals and set five meet records.