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Cuban hero Lopez lands historic haul

Cuban gymnast Erick Lopez won four gold medals to become the most successful athlete in Pan American Games history on Tuesday while former world No. 1 tennis player Marcelo Rios produced a typically bad-tempered display.

Local hero Felix Sanchez brought the house down as he easily qualified for the 400m hurdles final and former Olympic champion Jefferson Perez won Ecuador's first gold in the 20km walk, only to leave the country before the medals ceremony had taken place.

Off the field, a US official said he believed a solution was in sight to help the hundreds of Latin American athletes who have been left effectively stranded by new visa regulations.

Thirty-one-year-old Lopez won golds in the pommel horse, rings, vault and parallel bars to add to the individual all-round gold he won on Sunday and the team gold he won on Saturday, taking his tally to 22 medals since he first competed in Havana in 1991.

His total includes 18 golds, three silvers and one bronze.

In doing so, he beat the record jointly held by Argentina gymnast Juan Cavaglia, who 21 medals between 1951 and 1959, and US gymnast Abraham Grossfeld, who won the same number between 1955 and 1963.

"I'm very happy," he said. "I'm very proud to be here."

Rios did not share Lopez's enthusiasm for the Games as he overcame a towel shortage to surge into the third round of the tennis.

"What happened here does not happen anywhere else in the world," said Rios, who was also angry at the speed of the main court. "There were no towels and everything was a mess. It's not right that the main court is faster than the training courts, this is bad."

Despite an erratic start that included a number of unforced errors, the 43rd-ranked Rios needed only 48 minutes to dispatch Trinidad's Shane Stone 6-2, 6-2.

Perez, Olympic champion in 1996, kicked off the athletes by winning the 20km walk, then went straight home without collecting his medal to continue his preparations for this month's world athletics championships in Paris.

Later, Sanchez, world champion in the 400m hurdles, sent the crowd at Santo Domingo's pink Olympic stadium into delirium as he surged home to win his qualifying heat and then threw his yellow running shoes to his admirers in the stands.

Away from the sporting arena, US delegation head Roland Betts said his country was close to solving the problem caused by the Aug. 2 ruling which has ended the exemption to transit passengers from having to obtain US visas.

Brazil alone said 120 of their athletes, due to make connections in Miami on their way home, had been affected.

"I think we will have it figured out by tomorrow," Betts said.

Betts said a probable solution involved holding visas interviews in the Athletes Village.

"This will make it very quick and easy for them," he said.

The US overtook Cuba at the top of the medals table after picking up two golds in athletics, three in women's gymnastics, two in shooting, one in bowling and all four in the women's Greco-Roman wrestling.
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