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Ending on a down note More positive doping tests; Cuban weightifter loses gold
Posted: Sunday August 08, 1999 10:15 PM
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) -- Two Cuban weightlifting gold medalists and two Mexican baseball players tested positive for banned substances at the Pan American Games. Games officials said Sunday that William Vargas, winner in the 136.4-pound weightlifting class, and Rolando Delgado, the 152-pound class winner, tested positive for the anabolic steroir Nandrolone. Baseball players Roberto Vizcarra and Hector Alvarez also tested positive for Nandrolone. Seven athletes have tested positive for drugs at these games. "The biggest problem in Olympic sports is drugs," Pan American Sports Organization president Mario Vazquez Rana said. Brazil handed the United States its worst loss in men's basketball, winning 95-78 to claim the gold medal. The Brazilians ran their patterns to perfection and shot 60 percent in the first half to take control. They went inside to 6-foot-10 A.J. Santos to hold off the charging Americans in the second half. The U.S. men have not won the Pan Ams gold since 1983. "We're disappointed, but Brazil just played a better game than we did," guard Damon Bailey said of the collection of CBA all-stars who were together for about a month altogether. "I'm not sure if we would have been together for 10 years if we could have beaten them today." The final medals count showed the United States with 296 (106 gold, 110 silver, 80 bronze), followed by Canada with 196 (64-52-80) and Cuba with 156 (69-40-47). The others who failed drug tests were all gold medalists: Steve Vezina, the goalie on Canada's in-line roller hockey team, and high jumpers Javier Sotomayor of Cuba, the men's indoor and outdoor world record-holder and 1992 Olympic champion, and Juana Rosario Arrendel of the Dominican Republic. In addition, Mexican baseball player Ray Martinez refused to be tested, which was tantamount to testing positive. Vazquez Rana said drug users "should be punished forever." "If we do not win over the drugs, drugs will win over us," he said. With Vargas stripped of his gold medal, Barrio Hernandez of Colombia moves up from second place for the gold. The silver medal will go to Jiminez Lopez of Guatemala and the bronze to Legrand Sakamaki of the United States. Replacing Delgado is Jonny Gonzalez of Colombia, followed by Barbosa Morales, also of Colombia, and Alexis Batista of Panama. The tests on Vargas and Vizcarra resulted in positives on the A and B samples, Vazquez Rana said. However, the test on Alvarez was positive only on the A sample, and the chief of mission of the Mexican delegation accepted that result, refusing the right to have the B sample checked, Vazquez Rana said. Mexico finished fourth in the Pan Ams baseball tournament. Despite the seven positive tests, Vazquez Rana called this year's Pan Ams competition 'very clean games.' Between 850 and 1,000 drug samples were taken at the games, and the percentage of positives was minimal. "I would love it to be zero percent," Vazquez Rana said, "but that is almost impossible." Eduardo de Rose, head of the Pan American medical commission, said no games ever tested so many athletes. He called the number of positive cases "below average the number we've had at any international games." At the closing ceremony, highlights of the competition played on the large screen at the far end of the stadium while some 2,500 athletes and coaches marched en masse. It was an unruly gaggle who danced and swayed and gyrated to the beat. Some of the greatest cheers were for the athletes from the Dominican Republic, site of the next games, who carried a huge sign lettered in English and Spanish, "See you all in Santo Domingo 2003."
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