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Notebook Aussie volleyballers say they get no respect from U.S.
BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- Olympic beach volleyball gold medalists Kerri Pottharst and Natalie Cook of Australia think they deserve more respect than they get from Barbra Fontana and Elaine Youngs of the United States. The tension caused by Fontana's criticism of the Goodwill Games seeding system -- which made the Australians No. 1 because they were the host nation -- boiled over after the U.S. duo took the bronze medal Tuesday with a 21-12, 25-23 win over Pottharst and Cook. Pottharst said claims by Fontana that the competition was rigged to give the Australians an easy route into the final were out of line. Fontana and Youngs, ranked No. 2 in the world, lost in the semifinals to Brazil's No. 1 pair of Adriana Behar and Shelda Bede. Fontana said that match should have been the final. Cook and Pottharst lost their semifinal to Brazil's No. 2 team of Sandra Pires and Tatiana Minello, who went on to win the final against Shelda and Behar. "One thing I have been disappointed about this week is the lack of respect from the Americans" and the public criticism of the seeding, Pottharst said. Pottharst said she was on the bad end of a worse seeding system at the Olympics in Atlanta and "never complained once." "We respect [Fontana and Youngs] them totally and they played excellent today," Pottharst said. "They didn't give us a look in -- I'm just disappointed we didn't win."
Tickets pleaseGoodwill Games organizers remain optimistic about ticket sales for the headline track and field competition despite having more than 100,000 available seats just hours before the four-day meet opened Tuesday night. Organizers still were holding 40 percent of the tickets. The stands were only about two-thirds full in the 41,000-seat ANZ Stadium when Marion Jones won the women's 100 meters Tuesday. Goodwill Games chief executive Campbell Rose said 225,000 of the 330,000 tickets available to the public over the 12 days of competition had been sold. He said organizers were hoping sales would be boosted by a positive response to the track and field events, which boast a strong international field in a finals-only format. Rose said beach volleyball and cycling had been the most popular events so far, followed closely by swimming and gymnastics. "We could have sold out cycling and beach volleyball many times over," he said. Almost 90 percent of tickets to the seven days of swimming at the Chandler Aquatic Center were sold, with all the men's sessions sellouts, organizers said.
Buzzer-beaterAustralia rallied from a 25-20 first-quarter deficit to beat Canada in Goodwill Games basketball Tuesday. The Aussies scored 39 points in the final quarter -- and Axel Dench added the exclamation point. With his team already leading by 44, Dench took a halfcourt pass and, barely beating the final buzzer, flung the ball the remaining 50 feet into the basket. Australia won 111-64.
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