Brazil shines in beach volleyball c'ships

JAKARTA (JP): The 1995 World Champions Franco Jos Vieira Neto and Roberto Lopes da Costa of Brazil cruised into today's semifinals after winning convincingly 15-2 against Americans Eric Fonoimoana and Bill Boulianne yesterday.

Neto and da Costa, who are seeded sixth in the ninth leg of the Keramik Diamond Men's World Beach Volleyball Championships, rushed to a 14-0 lead from the outset without giving their opponents even a chance to earn any points.

But after four match points, the Brazilians seemed to lose control. They let the 10th-seeded Americans earn one point.

Taking back control of the match immediately, Neto and da Costa however threw away their chance to take the match when Neto's serve went beyond the limit of the artificial sand court created at the Senayan tennis complex.

Fonoimoana and Boulianne capitalized on their opponents's mistake to add one more point and change the score to 14-2.

But the former world champions won at the third time of asking, finishing the match 15-2 after Boulianne failed to return a smash.

Earlier yesterday, Neto and da Costa eliminated the third seeds Jan Kvalheim and Bjrn Maaseide of Norway 15-8.

In yesterday's all-Brazil quarterfinal, eighth-seeded Andr Faria Gomes and Emanuel Fernando Scheffer Rego defeated countrymen Rogrio "Par" Ferreira de Souza and Guilherme Luiz Marquez, the fourth seeds, 15-7.

Seventh seeded Christopher St John "Sinjin" Smith and Carl Henkel of the USA finally beat the Canadian 17th seeds Conrad Leinemann and Jody Holden 17-16.

Second seeded Mark Heese and John Child of Canada, the Centennial Olympics bronze medalists beat the top seeds Eduardo Esteban "Mono" Martinez and Martin Alejo Conde of Argentina 15-9 last night.

The semifinals and final will be aired live today on TPI starting at around 1:00 p.m.

Organizing committee chairwoman Rita Subowo said that the small number of spectators (about 1,000 people attended yesterday) was probably caused by staging the event at the same time as the soccer final at the Senayan main stadium.

"It was also probably because the National Games has just been completed. People are tired of sports events," she said.

The organizers yesterday announced that today's matches will be free of charge and each spectator will receive free T-shirts from the sponsors. (yan)