Sympatico Newsexpress Sports
Wed, July 28th
WINNIPEG (CP) - A day after Cuban President Fidel Castro took verbal shots at Canada, Cuban athletes turned on the jets Tuesday at the Pan Am Games and left Canada in the dust. Canada began the day trailing second-place Cuba by two in the medals race.
But thanks to a strong performance Tuesday afternoon in the men's gymnastic event finals, Cuba gained ground on the leading Americans and put distance between it and Canada.
In a speech on Monday - Revolution Day in Cuba - Castro accused Canada and the U.S. of dirty tricks aimed at harming Cuban athletes at the Pan Am Games.
Cuba won eight of a possible 16 medals in men's gymnastics, including four gold medals. Eric Lopez won three of those gold in parallel bars, pommel horse and rings.
Canadians also had a strong showing in gymnastics Tuesday.
On the men's side, Alexander (Sasha) Jeltkov of Montreal won a gold on the high bar, while Kris Burley of Truro, N.S., won a bronze on the vault.
Canadian women finished 1-2 in the uneven bars. Yvonne Tousek of Cambridge, Ont., won the gold while Julie Beaulieu of Montreal won the silver, bringing Canada's medal total to 40.
On the balance beam, Lise Leveille of Burnaby, B.C., won the gold with 9.612 points, ahead of Argentines Barbara Rivarola (9.512) and Melina Sirolli (9.387).
Canada will receive three more bronze medals Wednesday in badminton after the finals are staged.
Denyse Julien of Calgary, Kara Solmundson of Winnipeg and the doubles team of Bryan Moody of Pointe-Claire, Que., and Mike Beres of Mt. Pleasant, Ont., lost their semifinals Tuesday.
Jeltkov, who performed with his mother and father watching, scored a 9.700. Lopez, 26, received a 9.450 while Puerto Rico's Luis Vargas took bronze with a 9.400.
"I was a little bit stressed because there's always a chance that somebody can pull a miracle," said Jeltkov, 21. "I was pretty confident my score should be good enough."
The medal was Jeltkov's third of the Games. He won a team bronze Saturday and a silver behind Lopez in Sunday's individual finals.
Jeltkov, the Commonwealth Games champion in the event, moved with his parents to live a year in Israel in 1993, then arrived in Canada in 1994.
Lopez will return home with six medals, five of them gold. He also led Cuba to the team gold.
"These medals belong to the whole country of Cuba," Lopez said through an interpreter.
"Cuba is part of the victory, the medals are not only mine."
Elsewhere at the Games on Tuesday, the Canadian women's water polo team remained undefeated at 4-0 with a 13-6 win over Brazil and meets Cuba in Wednesday's semifinal.
Olympic triple gold-medal rower Marnie McBean of Toronto was first in her single sculls heat and will race in the final Wednesday.
The American women's volleyball team advanced to the medal round with a 3-2 (25-23,
11-25, 20-25, 25-18, 15-9) win over Canada, which finished out of medal contention.
The U.S. beat Canada 1-0 in men's field hockey, dropping Canada to 2-1.
Charmaine Reid of Fort Erie, Ont., advanced to Wednesday's final in women's badminton after beating teammate Solmundson 3-11, 11-4, 11-9 in Tuesday's semifinal.
Notes: The opening ceremonies on Friday drew 738,000 viewers to CBC. That's more than the 526,000 who watched the Commonwealth Games opening ceremonies in Malaysia last year, but far less than the 1.7 million who watched Game 5 of the Toronto Maple Leafs playoff series against the Philadelphia
Flyers.
© The Canadian Press, 1999
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