BARCELONA ’92 OLYMPICS / DAY 10 : DAILY REPORT : YACHTING : Spanish Gold Goes to Hosts, but U.S. Wins Five Medals

U.S. sailors won medals in all five events in Olympic yachting Monday, but failed to win any regattas for gold medals.

A poor start by Tornado sailors Randy Smyth of Mary Esther, Fla., and Keith Notary of Merritt Island, Fla., ruined the crew’s chance of winning a gold. Smyth and Notary led, heading into the seventh and final race, but settled for the silver.

The French boat of Yves Loday and Nicolas Henard came in second to win the gold medal, based on the results of all the races.

Smyth and Notary appeared to have the gold clinched Sunday. They were ahead in the race at all of the intermediate points, but light winds throughout the day slowed them, and they failed to finish in the allotted time.

The race was postponed until Monday, and Smyth and Notary were never in contention. They went past the first check point in 20th place and could only improve to 11th.

“We got the worst start we had all season and paid the price for it,” Smyth said. “But sailing’s always like this. If the race committee had used the shortened course yesterday, it would have been a different story.”

Spain gained three more gold medals and added a silver. U.S. boats were second to Spain in two divisions.

Brian Ledbetter of San Diego won the silver medal in the men’s Flying Dutchman class. Jose Maria van der Ploeg of Spain had clinched the gold before the final race.

Spain’s Jordi Calafat and Francisco Sanchez won the gold medal in the men’s 470 class. Morgan Reeser of Miami and Kevin Burnham of Coral Gables, Fla., were second.

Spain got its third gold when Theresa Zabell and Patricia Guerra won the women’s 470 class. They were ahead of New Zealand’s Leslie Egnot and Janet Shearer, and J.J. Isler of San Diego and Pamela Healy of Point Richmond, Calif.

Julia Trotman of Syosset, N.Y., took the bronze in Europe class, despite two disqualifications for premature starts in seven races.

SYNCHRONIZED SWIMMING

Josephsons Take Duet Lead

The U.S. twins edged the Canadian twins in the duet preliminary routine of synchronized swimming at Bernat Picornell pool. Karen and Sarah Josephson of Bristol, Conn., scored 98.640 to Penny and Vicky Vilagos’ 98.240.

Fumiko Okuno and Aki Takayama of Japan were third at 97.600. The Josephsons outscored the Canadians in technical merit, 59.28-58.80, but lost to them in artistic impression, 39.66-39.44. The Josephsons had five 9.9 scores for technical merit.

“We knew if we went out and had a good swim this would be what we would get,” Sarah said.

The compulsory figures competition will continue today with the finals Friday.

CANOE / KAYAK

U.S. Flatwater Boats Advance

All six U.S. boats advanced to the semifinals in the preliminaries of Olympic flatwater canoeing at Castelldefels.

Norman Bellingham of Washington, a 1988 gold medalist, finished second in his heat in the men’s 500-meter single kayak. His time of 1 minute 41 seconds was one-tenth of a second behind the heat winner, Sergei Kalesnik of the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Michael Harbold and Peter Newton, both of Honolulu, won their heat in the double kayak 500 and had the second-fastest time overall at 1:32.42.

Sheila Conover of Newport Beach had a strong start and strong finish to win her heat in the women’s single kayak 500 in 1:54.57, the fifth-fastest time overall. The men’s double canoe 500 team of Jim Terrell of Milford, Ohio, and Stewart Carr of Indianapolis placed sixth, but advanced to the semifinals.

The women’s double kayak 500 team of Cathy Marino of Huntington Beach and Traci Phillips of Honolulu placed sixth in its heat but advanced because of the number of boats that were scratched from the competition. In the men’s single canoe 500, Fred Spaulding of Costa Mesa advanced through the repechage into the semifinals.

FIELD HOCKEY

Pool Leaders Keep Winning

Australia and Germany remained undefeated in Pool A, Australia defeating Britain, 6-0, and Germany edging Argentina, 2-1.

Pakistan remained a game ahead of the Netherlands in Pool B with a 6-1 victory over Spain. The Netherlands defeated Malaysia, 6-0.

In other action, New Zealand got its first victory of the tournament by edging the Commonwealth of Independent States, 2-1.

MEDALISTS

YACHTING

(Finn)

GOLD Jose Maria van der Ploeg (Spain)

SILVER Brian Ledbetter (United States)

BRONZE Craig Monk (New Zealand)

(Europe)

GOLD Linda Andersen (Norway)

SILVER Natalia Via Dufresne (Spain)

BRONZE Julia Trotman (United States)

(Men’s 470)

GOLD Jordi Calafat and Francisco Sanchez (Spain)

SILVER Morgan Reeser and Kevin Burnham (U.S.)

BRONZE Tonu Toniste and Toomas Toniste (Estonia)

(Women’s 470)

GOLD Theresa Zabell and Patricia Guerra (Spain)

SILVER Leslie Egnot and Janet Shearer (New Zealand)

BRONZE J.J. Isler and Pamela Healy (United States)

(Tornado)

GOLD Nicolas Henard and Yves Loday (France)

SILVER Randy Smyth and Keith Notary (United States)

BRONZE Mitch Booth and John Forbes (Australia)