Louganis captures third diving gold

INDIANAPOLIS Greg Louganis became the first three-time divinggold medalist in Pan American Games history Monday night, easilytaking the men's 3-meter springboard championship with a meet-record754.14 points.

After the night's competition, the United States had 33 goldmedals, 23 silver and 16 bronze. Cuba had 21 gold and 40 medals.

Louganis also won both the 3-meter and platform dives at the1979 and 1983 Pan Am Games and will go for a six-medal sweep onSunday.

In swimming, Silvia Poll of Costa Rica and John Witchel of theUnited States became the first double-winners of the meet, andAnthony Nesty of Surinam twice broke a meet record in the men's100-meter butterfly.

Poll, 16, won her second individual gold medal of the Games,chopping eight seconds off her qualification time to capture thewomen's 200-freestyle.

Witchel, of New York, anchored America's winning 800-freestylerelay team that also set a Pan Am record. He won his first gold inthe 200-freestyle on Sunday.

Poll won the women's 100 on Sunday, giving Costa Rica itsfirst-ever Pan Am gold medal.

Nesty, who has lived in the United States for two years and willattend the University of Florida in the fall, set a Pan Am recordwith a time of 54.06 seconds in Monday morning's trials. He betteredthat in the championship heat with a time of 53.89.

Poll, the fourth-fastest qualifier in the women's 200 at2:08.40, recorded a personal best 2:00.02 in the finals, more thantwo seconds ahead of runner-up Whitney Hedgepeth of Colonial Heights,Va.

U.S. swimmers finished 1-2 in the men's 400-individual medley,with Jerry Frentsos taking the gold medal with a time of 4:23.92.JeffPrior of Philadlphia was second at 4:26.31, and Canada's MikeMeldrum was third at 4:29.63.

Dorsey Tierney of Louisville, Ky., gave the United Statesanother gold in the women's 200-breaststroke, winning at 2:36.87.

The United States team of Paul Robinson, Brian Jones, MikeO'Brien, and Witchel won the gold in the men's 800-meter freestyle ina record 7:23.29, topping the 7:23.64 by the United States in 1983.

WEIGHTLIFTING: Featherweights Gabriel Ensenat and Julio Loscoseach won three golds. Ensenat and Loscos shared the championships inthe 60-kilogram class because they lifted the same totals and weighedthe maximum of 132 1/4 pounds. They both snatched 120 kilograms andlifted 150 in the clean-and-jerk.

SOFTBALL: Jim Clark's two-run homer in the first inning and thethree-hit, 13-strikeout pitching of Peter Sandman led the UnitedStates men to their second straight shutout victory, 7-0 over theU.S. Virgin Islands. The women routed Peru 15-0 in five innings.

BASEBALL: Dennis Boucher pitched a seven-hitter and Canada tookadvantage of 15 walks to beat Venezuela 8-4. Nicaragua defeated theNetherlands Antilles 5-0, and Cuba beat Puerto Rico 1-0.

RHYTHMIC GYMNASTICS: Cuba's Lourdes Medina won the first everPan Am gold medal in the event, moving past Evanston's Diane Simpsonon the final apparatus.

CYCLING: Two cyclists from the Dominican Republic bolted fromtheir team and were reported traveling to New York to find work. Thehead of the Dominican delegation, Bienvenido Solano, said theathletes, Gustavo Deschamps and Teodoro Sosa, apparently boarded avehicle for Chicago and later intended to go to New York.