Seoul snippets

Press, 29 September 1988, Page 45

Seoul snippets

Reinsfield out PA Seoul The Auckland wrestler Steve Reinsfield was out of the Olympics late Tuesday evening, after losing two 62kg bouts to the East German Karsten Polky and the Russian Step Sarkissian. Reinsfield lost to Polky after a disqualification for passivity. Against Sarkissian he was beaten by 3.5 points to zero. Favoured to win the event is the United States Open titleholder, John Smith, who won the Pan American Games, the Olympic Festival 87 and the world championships in a five-week period last year. No special ceremony NZPA-Reuter Seoul Carl Lewis will receive his belated Olympic 100 metres gold medal quietly in an office. There will be no flag-raising fanfares in the Olympic stadium. The International Olympic Committee spokeswoman, Michele Verdier, said: “There will be no special ceremony. It is a rule of the International Amateur Athletic Federation (1.A.A.F.). The gold medal, the silver medal and the bronze medal will be presented on Saturday at the end of the track and field events in the Olympic stadium in the office of the I.A.A.F. President.” Britain’s Linford Christie will get the silver medal and the American Calvin Smith the bronze. Telepathic team NZPA-Reuter Seoul West Germany’s young dressage star, Nicole Uphoff, and her horse, Rembrandt, have a telepathic relationship — and it helped her to the Olympic gold medal on Tuesday. ± Uphoff, aged 21, who burst on to the international scene last year, scored 1521 points to win the individual title with a display of concentration and control that the sport’s old guard could not muster on the day. France’s Margitt Otto-Crepin on Corlandus took the silver with 1462 and Switzerland’s Christine Stueckelberger, who won the individual title in the 1976 Montreal Games, took the bronze on Gaugin de Lulle with 1417. Uphoff, gold winner in the team event on Sunday, said of the relationship with her U-year-old mount: “Sometimes I only need to think of an exercise and he does it.” Swimmer honoured NZPA-Reuter Paramaribo Surinam will honour its first Olympic gold medallist, swimmer Anthony Nesty, with a special gold coin and a stamp issue, the official Surinam News Agency (S.N.A.) has announced. The S.N.A. said, the president, Ramsewak Shankar, made the decision recently “with a view to giving expression to the State’s appreciation for the young swimmer’s extraordinary performance.” Nesty on September 21 won the gold medal for the 100 metres butterfly, beating favoured Matt Biondi, of the United States, and setting an Olympic record with a time of 53.00 seconds. It was the first such honour for Surinam, a former Dutch colony of 400,000 residents located on the northeast coast of South America. W. Germans foiled NZPA-Reuter Seoul The Soviet Union upset the world champion, West Germany, 9-5, on Tuesday to win the men’s team foil title, giving the veteran Alexandre Romankov his first gold medal in three Olympics. Hungary took the bronze by beating East Germany, 9-5, but the defending champion, Italy, showing signs of weariness after its fine performances in the individual competition and managed only seventh. The Russians, anchored by fine fencing from Vladimir Aptsiaouri who scored three out of three victories, took a 4-1 lead, and after the West Germans stormed back to 4-4, kept command to the end. Romankov, who won a silver in 1976 and a bronze in 1980 as well as bronze in the team event in Seoul, said the victory invigorated him. “I could do it all over again,” said the 34-year-old. The balding teacher from Minsk, a five-times world champion, said it was team spirit that pushed the Soviet fencers to victory. “As individuals we are weaker than the Germans and the Italians, but we’re just one strong team and we made it,” he said.