Best-ever8217; short on performances

Such was the shortage of world class performers that only one world record was broken during the Games and stunned organisers admitted that even this was more than they expected.

Cuba8217;s Hidalberto Arana Quintana amazed organisers when he hoisted 205.5 kilograms to make history in the men8217;s 77kg clean and jerk. 8220;It8217;s just super. A world record,8221; exclaimed Pan Am8217;s sport vice-president Mike Moore. 8220;I wasn8217;t counting on any.8221;

Elsewhere, organisers were not so lucky. Canadian former world record holder Donovan Bailey declined to run the men8217;s 100 metres, even though he had accepted200,000 from Athletics Canada to promote the Games. He did not take part in the opening ceremony either, though he later ran in a 4215;100 metres relay medley team beaten by Brazil.

Even more depressingly, Cuba8217;s Javier Sotomayor, one of the few really big names to grace the Games with his presence, lost what would have been his fourth consecutive Pan American gold medal after testing positive for cocaine.

Recent Pan American Games have seen a similar dearth of world class talent, and officials admit some changes are needed if the event, to be next held in Santo Domingo in four years8217; time, is not to get even more of a cold shoulder.

Don Mackenzie, chief executive officer of the Winnipeg organising committee, suggested turning more events into qualifiers for the Olympics.

8220;This is definitely what is needed, it will make more top performers come,8221; he said.

He added that the United States did not have things all their own way this time, losing out to Canada in the swimming, Cuba in the boxingand tying with Cuba in athletics gold medals. He was optimistic this would make them take the next Games more seriously.

8220;The United States can form several top class teams but maybe, now that Canada and other countries are challenging, this may put pressure on them to bring their top performers,8221; he said.

Fewer sports would also help.

8220;We8217;ve got six more sports than you have in the Olympics, so we8217;re the largest sporting event, in terms of sports, in the world,8221; Mackenzie said.

Winnipeg wasted no effort to put on what Pan American Sports Organisation PASO president Mario Vazquez Rana described as 8220;the best Pan Am Games in history.8221;

Athletes, officials and media agreed that the Games were infinitely better run than the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, the only event bigger in terms of number of competitors and events.

Transport services ran smoothly, security was unobtrusive and the army of volunteers were helpful and informed, a stark contrast to their Atlanta counterparts whose main functionappeared to be to stop people from getting where they wanted to go.

Perhaps the only glitch was a results service which could not tell Hispanic Christian names from Hispanic surnames.

Some felt that too much attention was focused on doping and the possible defection of Cuban athletes. Four were officially reported to have asked for refugee status, though some reports put the total higher.

Sotomayor was one of eight athletes to fail doping tests and four of them were gold medalists.

Cuba, already seething at reports of desertions and the fact that a human rights protester ran onto the field during one of their baseball games, fiercely defended Sotomayor. They branded the announcement of his doping as the culmination of a campaign of hostility against them and said they had been provoked throughout the 17 days of competition.