NAMES IN THE NEWS : Nadia, Panait Split, Friends Say

Nadia Comaneci’s agent says she may have broken up with Constantin Panait, the married man who engineered her escape from Romania.

The Olympic gymnast canceled her first U.S. appearance on the lecture circuit, apparently because she was upset over the breakup, said her agent, Bob Davis. She was to have given a speech Wednesday night at Nassau Community College.

Davis said he has not spoken to Comaneci since she left for Tokyo more than a week ago with Panait, a roofer with a wife and four children in Florida. But people in Comaneci’s entourage say the two broke up en route back from Japan, Davis said.

Comaneci is staying with friends in Montreal, Davis said, where she won the first perfect 10s in Olympic gymnastics history in 1976. Panait is on the road.

Comaneci said in a recent magazine interview that she and Panait had no plans to marry. She said last month that she intends to marry a 30-year-old fellow Romanian who is expected to enter the United States later this year.