PAN AM GAMES : Records Fall as U.S. Hits 400 Medals

If not for a dropped baton, the United States might have gotten to the unconquered 400-medal level a little sooner at the Pan Am Games.

No matter. The Americans got there Saturday when wrestler Zeke Jones, a former world champion and 1992 Olympic silver medalist, took the gold at 114 1/2 pounds. Jones, of Chandler, Ariz., beat Cuba’s Carlos Verela, 5-2.

“God bless America,” Jones said. “As our medals totals continue to climb, it’s showing that the United States is getting stronger and stronger in the Olympic movement.”

On Friday, the U.S. team surpassed the record of 369 medals it set eight years ago at Indianapolis. The gold medal mark of 168, also at Indianapolis, was in reach too.

One expected medal that didn’t come was in the men’s 1,600-meter relay.

Dino Napier hadn’t dropped the baton in 14 years of relay racing. He still doesn’t remember how he fumbled the pass to Tony Miller.

“My heart is broken,” said Napier, of El Paso. “It happened so fast. The next thing I knew I was picking it up and giving it to Tony--again.”

The Cuban team won.

The Cuban-U.S. rivalry for track supremacy went down to the wire on the final day of competition, Cuba winning four gold medals and two silvers and the Americans taking three golds and five silvers.

The Americans were piling up medals everywhere Saturday.

The U.S. picked up four golds, three silvers and a bronze in water skiing, and the women’s softball team stretched its unprecedented international winning streak to 105 by beating Puerto Rico, 4-0, for the gold medal.

Another gold came in water polo, when the Americans blitzed Brazil, 16-5.

On the track, the U.S. women’s 400 relay team (Shantell Twiggs, Richelle Webb, Flirtisha Harris, Christe Gaines) ran away with the gold in 43.55 seconds. Gaines, the 100-meter gold medalist, opened a 10-yard lead and cruised.

The Cubans came right back to take the men’s 400 relay in 38.67.

In the women’s 1,600 relay, again it was Cuba and the United States finishing 1-2, and U.S. record-holder Lance Deal of Eugene, Ore., won the hammer with a toss of 248 feet 2 inches.

World record holder Javier Sotomayor, one of the celebrities of these games, took the gold in the high jump at 7-10 1/2.

Benjamin Paredes of Mexico won the men’s marathon, and Maria Trujillo, the Long Beach Marathon winner from Marina, Calif., won the women’s race.