CARACAS, Venezuela -- The rains which drenched the Pan American Games track and field competition Thursday affected everybody but Luis Delis.
While Americans Coleen Sommer and Joan Benoit were hampered by the conditions at Olympic Stadium, they still hobbled to easy gold medals. But Delis, the massive Cuban who had won the shot put Tuesday, ignored the slippery footing to set a Pan Am record in the discus.
With his second throw of 220 feet 10 inches, Delis improved the Pan Am standard of 209-4 set by Mac Wilkins of the U.S. in 1979. Although Delis, the world's No. 2-ranked discus thrower, was awkward in the back of the ring, he exploded at front to his winning distance.
Bradley Cooper of The Bahamas won the silver medal at 204-8 and Juan Martinez of Cuba, ranked No. 5 in the world, copped the bronze at 203-6.
Although the two Americans who were scheduled to compete -- Paul Bishop of South Gate, Calif., and Greg McSeveney of Norwalk, Calif., - withdrew from the meet along with 10 other U.S. athletes Tuesday, it is doubtful they could have beaten Delis' powerful throw.
'I was pleased with my throw, but I was looking forward to competing against the Americans,' said Delis, the bronze medalist at the Moscow Olympics in 1980.
Delis, who also competed in weightlifting last week, has charged the Americans left because they had already been examined by their own team doctors and been found to have drugs in their system. The U.S. team denied the allegation.
Sommer, the American outdoor high jump record-holder, found just about everytOing to complain about after capturing the first gold of the day with a leap of 6-3 . Silvia Costa of Cuba, who like Sommer has made 6-6, could not make it over that mark and settled for a silver at 6-2.
Sommer put down, in order: the crowd, the humid air, and the officials.it's not ours.'? -- 'I thought I was going to collapse on my last three jumps, it waw so humid.'
-- 'I was asking them a question and they started the clock on me (90-second clock between jumps). Then they wouldn't answer the question, so I just decided to pass that jump.'
Benoit, of Freeport, Maine, who set the American record in the marathon in Boston this year, had no trouble winning the gold medal in the women's 3,000 meters with a time of 9 minutes 14.19 seconds. medal decided was taken by Conceicao Geremias of Brazil, who despite losing the last event of the women's heptathlon, the 800 meters, by more than two seconds to Cindy Greiner of Eugene, Ore., was able to hold on and win the seven-event test with 6,084 points. Greiner won the silver medal with 6,068.
Kim Turner of Detroit and Benita Fitzgerald of Dale City, Va., made it to the women's 100-meter hurdles final; LaShon Nedd of Los Angeles and Randy Givens of Amityville, N.Y., clocked the two fastest times in the 200-meter semifinals at 23.34 and 23.44; and in the men's 200 semis, Bernard Jackson of Tempe, Ariz., and World Championships silver medalist Elliott Quow of Brooklyn, N.Y., qualified.
After three days of the six-day track and field meet, the weakened U.S. team had managed to tie Cuba for the most medals at 13, although Cuba had seven golds to the Americans' three. Brazil also had three golds and five total.
The U.S. boxing team rebounded from a poor showing the previous night and won all four of its semifinal matches. Lightweight Pernell Whitaker of Norfolk, Va., junior welterweight Jerry Page of Columbus, Ohio, welterweight Louis Howard of St. Louis, and junior middleweight Dennis Milton of New York advanced to the finals.
All four will meet Cubans in Sunday's finals.
Michael Jordan of North Carolina scored 24 points and the U.S. men's basketball team, closing in on a gold-medal payday, overpowered Argentina 88-68. The Americans, the 1979 Pan Am champions, are 3-0 in this round and can clinch the gold medal tonight with a victory over Brazil.
The offensive attack by the United Srates was triggered by extraordinary defensive pressure. A swarming, trapping 3-2 zone completely took the Argentines out of their game.
'Outstanding, just tremendous,' said U.S. Coach Jack Hartman of his team's defense.
Nicaragua topped the U.S. baseball team 9-5 but the Americans can clinch the gold medal with a triumph over Cuba today.
Ace Ty Stofflet was racked for his worst outing of the Games before the U.S. men's softball team came back for an 11-9 win over Canada. Chuck Prescott slammed a home run for the Americans.
