WORLD SPORTS SCENE / RANDY HARVEY : Cyclists Have Not-So-Friendly Rivalry

Not only should cyclists Connie Paraskevin-Young and Renee Duprel, two of the world’s best sprinters, not be invited to the same party, they shouldn’t be invited to the same races, if it can be avoided.

Kent Compton, the director of cycling at Dominguez Hills’ Olympic Velodrome, discovered that last month in a series of races designed to showcase Paraskevin-Young for Continental Cablevision.

Compton believed it would be a good idea to recruit Duprel, a two-time U.S. match sprint champion, until Paraskevin-Young, a four-time world champion and 1988 Olympic silver-medalist, told him that she would withdraw if he did.

So he didn’t. But he did mention to Duprel that others suggested that there was nothing they could do to keep her out of the races if she just happened to show up at the start line.

Duprel apparently took that as a hint. After Erica Salumae, Olympic gold-medalist in 1988 for the Soviet Union, won the first race, finishing ahead of runner-up Paraskevin-Young and third-place Duprel, Compton said that Paraskevin-Young threatened to leave before the second race.

“She changed her mind when I convinced her that I hadn’t conspired against her,” he said. “She agreed to come back for the second race, which Renee won. But that was it. There was no third race.

“I knew that Connie and Renee weren’t buddy-buddy, but I had no idea there was that much love lost between them.”

Friendlier rivals are Dave Johnson and Dan O’Brien, the Reebok shoe mates who are expected to contend for the gold medal this summer at Barcelona in the decathlon. Other contenders, Johnson said recently, are Mike Smith of Canada, Christian Plaziat of France and Christian Schenk of Germany.

But he added that he doesn’t believe they will challenge him or O’Brien for the gold or silver. “If they do well and we do well, we’ll still be 200 points ahead of those guys,” he said.

O’Brien has an advantage because of his speed, but Johnson has improved in that area by working with former USC sprinter Don Quarrie, who competed in the Olympics for Jamaica.

Johnson, who trains at Azusa Pacific, was among several potential Olympians who appeared earlier this month at a U.S. Olympic Committee media seminar. Although Johnson is long past his juvenile delinquent days, he said he still prefers an occasional beer to a Coca-Cola.

He should have said Pepsi. “I could give you a list of our other sponsors to insult,” USOC spokesman Mike Moran said, gently reminding Johnson that Coca-Cola is one of the Olympic movement’s most generous sponsors.

Ollan Cassell, executive director of The Athletics Congress, the governing body for track and field in the United States, is campaigning for the opening created on the International Olympic Committee when his close friend, Robert Helmick, resigned. Cassell is telling people that he is the best possible choice in the United States. We keep waiting for him to add the familiar “not!”

Cassell, the man in charge during the sport’s decline in the United States, is barely clinging to his TAC job, although a vote scheduled for June 23 on whether to extend his contract might be postponed until September.

Meantime, his campaign to improve his image with the media suffered a setback last week when he was caught on audiotape evicting a film crew for the Arts & Entertainment network’s sports documentary, “More Than a Game,” from his Indianapolis office.

Steve Timmons said he was disappointed when his longtime teammate, Karch Kiraly, chose to play for money on the beach instead of for a third gold medal with the U.S. Olympic volleyball team.

“We’ve been together since everyone thought volleyball was the game you played in the park until the burgers were done,” Timmons said. “It was an easy decision for me to come back to play in the Olympics, which has been the highlight of my career, but I think Karch wanted to move on and face the challenge of being the best beach player in the world.”

But is that challenge worthy of Kiraly, one of the best volleyball players of all time?

“I don’t think there are any guys playing on the beach except for Karch who could make the (U.S.) team,” Timmons said. “I don’t think that’s a controversial statement. There are some great players out there, but if they were capable of playing (for the Olympic team), they would do it. Many of them, their day has passed.”

Yugoslavia’s civil war has torn apart the country’s water polo team, consistently one of the world’s best.

“They would have been favored to win the gold medal at Barcelona,” said Craig Wilson, who was in goal for the United States when it lost in overtime to the Yugoslavs in the 1988 Olympic championship game.

“Now, they’re split. Half the starters are from Croatia and half are from Serbia.”

Wilson, who plays professionally for a team in Barcelona, knows several Croatians from the Spanish League. Because Croatia will not be represented in water polo in the Olympics, its players are eligible to compete for a unified Yugoslav team. But Wilson said that he believes they will reject that option.

“If they can’t play for Croatia, they don’t want to play,” he said.

Yugoslavia is still considered a gold-medal contender. But the United States, with the 35-year-old Wilson in goal for his third Olympics, or host Spain probably will be the favorite. Even at full strength, the Yugoslavs lost in overtime to the U.S for the 1991 World Cup championship.

Notes

In case you missed it on Spanish-language television at midnight last Wednesday, European soccer’s version of the Super Bowl, the Champions Cup, was won by FC Barcelona in a 1-0 overtime victory over Sampdoria of Genoa, Italy. Dutch international Ronald Koeman scored the only goal on an indirect free kick in the 112th minute. Although the game was scoreless until that point, neither team played negative soccer.

Gianluca Vialli had three excellent opportunities to score for Sampdoria. A day later, he sent Genoa into depression by announcing that he would transfer to Juventus, the legendary team from Turin. . . . Soccer’s U.S. Cup begins next Saturday at Washington with a game between the United States and Ireland. Other teams in the tournament are Italy and Portugal.

Laker assistant Bill Bertka will serve as a scout in Europe for the U.S. Olympic men’s basketball team.