ORANGE COUNTY OLYMPIC NOTEBOOK : Marino, Teammate End Up Just Short in Kayak Semifinal

Cathy Marino narrowly missed advancing to the finals in the 500-meter doubles flatwater kayak competition, but at least she had the satisfaction of knowing she didn’t have a subpar race in Wednesday’s semifinals.

Marino, a Huntington Beach resident, Long Beach firefighter and mother of a 2-year-old boy, teamed with Honolulu’s Traci Phillips to place fifth in their heat with a time of 1 minute 45.50 seconds.

The top four finishers in each heat and the fastest fifth-place finisher advance to the finals, but Jeanette Brandstrup Knudsen and Yvonne Brandstrup Knudsen of Denmark placed fifth in the other heat in 1:43.58 to edge Marino and Phillips for the ninth berth.

“I gave it my heart and my soul,” said Marino, 35. “I got out of the boat, my legs were wobbly, and I felt queasy. I couldn’t paddle any harder. I was going through a lot of pain at the end, and all I kept thinking was this was nothing compared to childbirth or fighting a fire. I used all my resources and gave it 120%, but it obviously wasn’t enough.”

The Marino-Phillips team’s time was good--the two have been running in the 1:44-1:45 range the past few months--but it seemed as if the rest of the field got faster. For instance, the Canadian team of Alison Herst and Klara Macaskill, which finished 2 1/2 seconds behind Marino-Phillips last month in Lake Placid, N.Y., ran a 1:42.30 Wednesday to place second in their heat.

“That’s really frustrating, but in terms of focus, concentration, boat mechanics and execution, we were flawless,” Marino said. “You get to this level, and there are so many variables. Your training has to be on, you have to peak properly . . . maybe we peaked too soon.”

Marino hopes to peak at least once more, when she attempts to medal in the 500-meter quad kayak finals Saturday. Her team, which includes Newport Beach’s Sheila Conover, placed second in Tuesday’s heat. It will likely be Marino’s last Olympic race.

“That eases my disappointment from (Wednesday) in that I can take that frustration, anger and energy to the K-4 final,” Marino said. “It will make me fight that much harder. I’m going to wreak havoc in the K-4. I may be dead when I cross the finish line, but I’m going to feel good about my performance.”

A mere 23/100ths of a second separated Conover from the last berth in the 500-meter singles kayak finals. Like Marino, Conover placed fifth in her heat with a mark of 1:53.05, but the fifth-place time of 1:52.82 by Romania’s Sanda Toma in the other heat edged out Conover.

Conover’s mark was only 1.49 seconds behind Italy’s Josefa Idem, who won the heat in 1:51.56.

“I was bummed, definitely bummed,” said Conover, who raced in the first heat and waited anxiously for the second. “Being so close to winning my heat, being a contender, knowing I had a shot for a medal, it was tough. Everyone was within one or two seconds of each other.”

Conover said course conditions didn’t work in her favor. There was a .5-meters-per-second tail wind during her race but a 2.0-meters-per-second tail wind during Heat 2.

“That’s a huge difference,” Conover said. “I’m a very fair person--if I compete and someone is better than me I accept that. But it’s really disheartening when the conditions vary so much, and there are times involved. In my case, I didn’t have the lucky star.”

Conover said the luck of the draw has played a major role in the canoe and kayak competitions. Some lanes seem to catch more of the wind than others, and water obstacles are more prevalent in some lanes.

“It’s a lottery, a crap shoot,” Conover said. “It’s ‘Who gets the lane with no weeds floating in it? Who gets the lane with the most wind?’ It’s unfortunate that so much is left (to) chance in the Olympics.”

With a four-game victory over the Unified Team, the U.S. men’s volleyball team advanced to Friday’s semifinals against Brazil, a team the Americans remember all too well.

Especially Laguna Beach’s Scott Fortune, who was sidelined with a strained right hip and watched the Brazilians sweep the United States in a World League match July 5.

Brazil’s victory came only two days after it was swept by the United States in San Diego, the Americans’ last match before the Olympics.

Fortune returned in time for the Olympics, and had a hitting percentage of 75% in the victory over the Unified Team. Brazil, 5-0, the only undefeated team remaining in the tournament, swept Japan in a quarterfinal match Wednesday. The Netherlands will meet Cuba in the other semifinal.

HOW THE OTHERS FARED

--Jeff Campbell, Mike Evans, Chris Duplanty, John Vargas (UC Irvine) and Doug Kimbell (Orange), with U.S. water polo team, which was upset by the Unified Team, 8-5. Evans scored a goal for the United States, which won its first three matches but must defeat or tie Germany today to advance to the semifinals.

“It was a bad day at the office,” Evans said. “We were a little bit anxious for the most part, and we don’t play that well when we’re hyped. When we fell behind in the fourth quarter it was like a panic--hurry up and catch up. We made mistakes and didn’t play like we should. But I don’t think it will hurt our gold-medal chances.”

Nick Becker (Newport Beach), Carlos Briceno (Fountain Valley), Scott Fortune (Laguna Beach), Brent Hilliard (Dana Point) and Steve Timmons (Newport Beach) are members of the U.S. men’s volleyball team that advanced to Friday’s semifinals against unbeaten Brazil by defeating the Commonwealth of Independent States, 12-15, 15-4, 15-10. 15-11.

--Phil Nevin, Placentia, went 0 for 4 in the U.S. baseball team’s 8-3 loss to Japan in the bronze-medal game. In nine games, Nevin batted .219 with six runs batted in, but had only two hits in his last 21 at-bats.

--Fred Spaulding, Costa Mesa, finished sixth in his 500-meter singles flatwater canoe semifinal heat with time of 1:57.48. He did not advance to the finals.

--Jim Terrell, Newport Beach, and Stewart Carr, West Palm Beach, Fla., finished fifth in their 500-meter doubles flatwater canoe semifinal heat with a time of 1:46.62 but did not advance to the finals.

--Bonnie Dasse, Irvine, had a throw of 54 feet 8 3/4 inches and failed to reach the women’s shotput final, finishing with the 14th-best mark in the field of 18. Vita Pavlych of the CIS had the 12th and final qualifying mark of 57-0 3/4. Ramona Pagel of San Diego threw 59-1 1/2. The top qualifier was Svetlana Kriveleva of the CIS at 65-6 1/2.

WHO’S COMPETING TODAY

Greg Barton, Newport Beach, in men’s 1,000-meter single flatwater kayak semifinals and with Norman Bellingham, Washington, D.C., in 1,000-meter flatwater doubles kayak semifinals.

Fred Spaulding, Costa Mesa, in men’s 1,000-meter single flatwater canoe semifinals.

Jeff Campbell, Mike Evans, Chris Duplanty, John Vargas (UC Irvine) and Doug Kimbell (Orange) with U.S. water polo team against Germany.

Tammy Liley (Westminster), Elaina and Kim Oden (Irvine) with U.S. women’s volleyball team against Cuba in semifinals.

This report was compiled by Times Staff Writer Mike DiGiovanna.