Olympic Festival Marked Start of Competitions : Games: Top national and international events are just around the corner for many local athletes.

The Olympic Festival slogan was “Gateway to the Gold.”

Gateway to the Games might have been more appropriate.

While the Olympic Games in Atlanta still are two years away, top national and international competition is just around the corner for many Festival athletes, including several from the Valley and Ventura County regions.

This year’s biggest games: The Goodwill Games.

Already set for the Goodwill Games, which begin July 23 in St. Petersburg, Russia, are canoe paddlers Joe Harper and David Spaulding of Ventura, boxer Lance Whitaker of San Fernando and team handball utility man Denny Fercho of Camarillo.

Harper and Spaulding, who learned how to paddle in Ventura Harbor, are among a contingent of nine Americans that will compete when flat-water spring canoe racing makes its Goodwill Games debut.

Harper, a 1984 St. Bonaventure High graduate, won three silver medals at last year’s sprint national championships. Spaulding, a 1984 Buena High graduate, was a 1992 Olympian.

Whitaker, a former San Fernando High basketball player, is U.S. champion in the super-heavyweight classification.

Fercho, a Rio Mesa High graduate, is in his second stint on the U.S. handball squad. James Hop, another Camarillo resident, would be making the trip had he not sustained a serious knee injury on Monday.

When they return from the Goodwill Games, Harper and Spaulding will participate in the sprint national championships, Aug. 9-13 in Indianapolis, along with Jim Werland, another paddler from Ventura.

Harper and Spaulding will compete in the World Championships, Sept. 21-25, in Mexico City.

Whitaker, who is in only his second full year of training, would be joined at the Goodwill Games by Fernando Vargas of Oxnard, but Vargas isn’t old enough.

Vargas, the U.S. amateur champion at 132 pounds, is 16. Boxers must be 17 to compete internationally.

Vargas earned a gold medal at the Olympic Festival by handily winning both of his bouts.

Here, by sport, is a look at the plans of other local Festival athletes:

* Baseball: Randy Wolf, a left-handed pitcher from El Camino Real High, has been selected to the 18-player U.S. junior national team.

The squad, which has been practicing in Joplin, Mo., since the conclusion of the Olympic Festival, leaves today for Tyler, Tex., where it will play games against teams from Australia, Mexico and East Texas.

The team will take part in the Junior World Baseball Championships at Brandon, Manitoba, Canada, July 21-31.

* Diving: Nancy Janik and Ricky Wood, both from Simi Valley, begin competition today in the World Diving Trials at the St. Peter’s Rec-Plex, near St. Louis. Janik and Wood both are participating in the one-meter and three-meter springboard events.

* Field hockey: Larry Amar and Taylor Trickle of Camarillo, Jeff Horrocks of Newbury Park, David Finkel of Thousand Oaks and Ben Maruquin of Ventura have been selected to the U.S. senior national team, which will train at the University of North Carolina, July 25-Aug. 1.

The U.S. team will participate in a four-team international tournament in Toronto, Aug. 4-7, then move to Madison, N.J., for a five-team international tournament, Aug. 10-14.

Several other area athletes are expected to be named to the U.S. junior national team that will play in an international tournament in Great Britain, Aug. 16-28. The squad will be announced later this week.

* Swimming: Nicole Beck, Rebecca Gilman and Mandy Walz of Ventura, Jennifer Parmenter of Granada Hills, Erin Schatz of Agoura Hills and John Jenkins of La Crescenta will compete in the senior long-course nationals, Aug. 14-19, in Indianapolis.

The top two finishers in each event will qualify to swim in the World Championships, Sept. 5-11 in Rome. Third and fourth-place finishers are likely to compete in the Pan American Games, March 12-17 in Mar del Plata, Argentina, near Buenos Aires.

* Table tennis: Anita Zakaryan of Glendale is a member of the U.S. team that will take part in the World Team Cup, Oct. 12-16, in France. Zakaryan is ranked fourth in the nation among women singles players.

* Ania Bleszynski of Thousand Oaks will play in the girls 18-and-under nationals, Aug. 7-13, in San Jose.

Bleszynski, a Stanford-bound Harvard-Westlake High graduate, won the Olympic Festival gold medal in singles.

Meilen Tu, coming off her impressive victory in the Surbiton Junior Championships in London on grass, is considered one of the favorites in the tournament. Tu, 16, from Northridge, was ranked fourth among singles players at the end of last season.

* Racquetball: Tony Jelso of Woodland Hills will compete in the U.S. National Doubles Championships in Jacksonville, Fla., Oct. 18-22.

The winning team at nationals qualifies for the U.S. Pan-American team.