Kiraly, Johnson Lose Beach Final to Brazilians

Brazil’s Guilherme Marques and Para Ferreira, the No. 1-ranked beach volleyball team, won the gold-medal match Sunday at the Goodwill Games with a 12-11, 12-4 victory over Karch Kiraly and Adam Johnson of the United States.

Cheered by a near-capacity crowd of 2,800, the U.S. team responded with a 9-6 lead in the opening game, but the Brazilians ran off five consecutive points to set up a game point. Kiraly and Johnson tied it at 11-11, with the 37-year-old Kiraly making a diving save on one point and a stuff at the net for the other. But the Brazilians got the serve back and won the next point. In the second game they took command with an 8-1 lead.

In cycling, the United States won the gold medal in the two-day mixed team event, easily beating a team of athletes from several countries. Russia was third. Marcelo Arrue, Mike McCarthy and brothers James and Jonas Carney had wins for the U.S. men, and Jennie Reed had a first and a second in women’s races.

In diving, world champion Dmitry Sautin won the men’s three-meter springboard by almost 49 points over U.S. teenager Troy Dumais. Sautin never failed to get at least one mark of 8.5 or better on each of his 11 dives. Laura Wilkins, a University of Texas sophomore, won the women’s platform gold medal on the final dive. Wilkinson, who was fifth in the platform at this year’s World Championships, defeated three women who beat her in that event, edging Cai Yuyan of China by just 2.64 points.

In wrestling, world champion Les Gutches defeated Olympic champion Khadzimurad Magomedov to help the United States beat Russia, 16-14, for the gold medal. Gutches’ 4-3 victory at 187 pounds was one of five American victories, including a 27-second pin by Tony Purler against Murad Ramazanov at 128. Turkey beat Iran, 16-13, for the bronze medal.

In gymnastics, China won the mixed-team gold medal, with Ling Jie and Huang Xu edging women’s world champion Svetlana Korkina and Alexei Nemov of Russia by 0.275 points. Huang, a member of the Chinese men’s world champion team, and Ling rallied on the second rotation to total 39 points. Russia’s Anna Kovaleva and Aleksei Bondorenko were third, and the medal was Bondorenko’s meet record-tying sixth. No Americans reached Sunday’s finals.

China’s paralyzed gymnast, Sang Lan, who had a seven-hour spinal operation Saturday, has regained some strength in her shoulders and biceps, said Dr. Vincent Leone, director of spinal surgery at Nassau County Medical Center in Long Island. But doctors repeated that she probably would never walk again.