ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, August 18, 1996 TAG: 9608190144
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C-10 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: ATLANTA
SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES
Jumping on one leg, Chinese high jumper Hou Bin set a world record of 1.92 meters - about 6 feet, 3 inches - in the opening day of competition in the 10th Paralympic Games on Saturday.
With some of the trappings of the Olympics, but the informality of a high school track meet or a YMCA pickup basketball game, Paralympic track and field competition opened here this weekend.
Many of the same venues in use two weeks ago for the Olympic Games were back in operation this weekend, including Olympic Stadium where opening ceremonies Thursday drew more than 64,000 spectators.
They watched as Mark Wellmann, a two-time Winter Paralympian, cradled the Paralympic torch on his feet and hauled himself on ropes to the top of Olympic cauldron to relight the flame extinguished during the Olympic closing ceremonies Aug.4.
A considerably smaller crowd was on hand Saturday morning to watch Hou easily set a world record. Silver medalist Alan Earle, of Great Britain, and bronze medalist Juergen Kern of Germany also cleared the old record of 1.78 meters.
While there are only 17 sports in the Paralympics - many of them specifically designed for disabled athletes - there are many events. Each athlete is classified according to the level of disability. There are, for example, 100-meter races for wheelchairs, amputees and the visually impaired.
Many of the Paralympians will compete in multiple events and even multiple sports. American Scot Hollonbeck, favored in the 800-meter wheelchair race, won his preliminary heat in that race, and now looks forward to heats in the 1,500 meters and 5,000 meters.
``I didn't run the race I wanted because I drew lane 8,'' Hollonbeck said. ``I couldn't get in against those guys. They bolted out of the hole really fast and I had a tough time maneuvering.''
Hollonbeck, whose Paralympic world record of 1:40.63 in the 800 meters is more than a full second faster than Sebastian Coe's able-bodied world record, said he raced only to advance to the next round. ``It's a long week of racing and you can't run yourself crazy in the preliminaries.''
While the crowds have been smaller, the competition has been fierce in the opening days of the Paralympics.
If the Paralympic volleyball team of the Czech Republic expected some gentle camaraderie from the United States team, they were sorely disappointed as the Americans crushed them in straight sets Friday and then said the Czechs needed a good thrashing.
``This is pay back,'' said Thomas Sestanovich, a 33-year-old lawyer from Manhattan Beach, Calif., after the U.S. rolled to a 15-1, 15-6, 15-5 victory. ``The Czechs beat us in 1993 at a tournament in Germany when half our team wasn't there. And they weren't very nice about it.''
The Americans returned the favor, 15-1, 15-6, 15-5, in a match that wasn't as close as the score indicated.
The volleyball match, in common with many of the early-round competitions, drew only a few hundred spectators. Many of those were family members and friends or Paralympians from other teams scouting the action.
Even before the match began, it was clear the Americans had a decisive advantage in youth, height and speed over the Czechs. ``We don't have that many young people coming into Paralympic volleyball,'' Czech coach Milan Matousek explained later. ``Most of our players were volleyball players before they sustained their injuries.''
By comparison, few of the Americans had played volleyball before losing a limb. Sestanovich lost a leg to bone cancer at the age of 15, but began playing volleyball only about five years ago. ``The coach who recruited me asked if I played volleyball, and I said, `No, but I can dunk a basketball on one leg.'''
Sestanovich is one of two Americans who play on one leg. Chris Seilkop, a 26-year-old leg amputee and one of two star spikers on the team, uses a prosthetic leg when he plays.
Like the track and field athletes, the volleyball players are classified according to disability. Athletes with greater disability are ranked higher on a scale of points. Sestanovich, playing on one leg, is listed as a level 8 disability, while Seilkop, with his prosthetic leg, rates a 4. Each team must have 26 total disability points on the floor at any time.
Like the Centennial Olympic Games, the Paralympics encountered some problems in the first days of competition. The wheelchair basketball team from Iraq, which was scheduled to play the United States on Friday evening, never appeared at the Opening Ceremonies, nor at the basketball game.
The missing Iraqi Paralympic team has been located - in Iraq.
A source at Iraq's Olympic Committee told The Associated Press that the country decided not to send a team to the international disabled games for financial reasons. The team was reported missing Friday after failing to show at the Paralympics opening ceremony and their housing quarters.
LENGTH: Medium: 93 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP Juergen Kern of Germany reacts after clearing 5by CNBfeet, 101/2 inches during the Paralympic high-jump competition
Saturday at Centennial Olympic Stadium in Atlanta. color.