Pubdate: Sat, 4 September 1999
Source: Associated Press
Copyright: 1999 Associated Press
Author: Anita Snow, Associated Press Writer

CASTRO SAYS CUBA WILL STAY IN PAN AM GAMES

HAVANA (AP) -- President Fidel Castro said Saturday that Cuba will continue
to compete in the Pan Am Games and other international events even though he
is suspicious of drug tests flunked by his country's athetes.

Castro is demanding an investigation of the tests.

"We are not breaking with any institution," the Cuban president said toward
the end of the second and last televised hearing on the drug issue, which
continued into early Saturday.

Castro said that Pan American Sports Organization president Mario Vazquez
Rana had expressed interest in Cuba's demand for an investigation. Vazquez
Rana had no immediate public comment, however, following Castro's public
demands.

Castro said on Friday the IOC should look into the drug tests at the Pan Am
Games last month and he demanded four Cuban athletes who tested positive for
banned steroids get back their medals.

"And for much more," he said during his five-hour televised speech. "To
return the honor of these scorned athletes. We will not rest until it is
achieved."

Castro asked that IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch form a commission to
follow up on Cuba's charges of irregularities in drug tests given to world
champion high jumper Javier Sotomayor and three weight lifting medal winners
at the games in Winnipeg, Alberta.

Castro said the gold medals taken from Sotomayor and weight lifters William
Vargas and Rolando Delgado, and the silver medal stripped from weight lifter
Modesto Sanchez should be returned.

Sotomayor tested positive for cocaine.

Castro also wants the commission to look into disputed bouts at the
International Amateur Boxing Association Championships last month.

After one one match, the association suspended four judges for
irregularities after giving a Russian fighter a victory over a Cuban. The
decision was reversed and the Cuban was given the gold medal.

On Thursday night, Castro, along with a leading sports official and a top
sports doctor, said that multiple urine tests on the weight lifters
conducted by Cuba and sent to three different laboratories in Europe all
failed to show the steroid Nandrolone. The tests were conducted four-to-five
days after the athletes returned to Cuba from the Pan Am Games, Castro said.

Steroids are injected into the body to increase strength and bulk and can
remain in a person's system for months.

Not a single athlete in our weight lifting team was using drugs," Castro said.

In the case of Sotomayor, it would be "absurd" to believe that Sotomayor
took cocaine before he won his fourth straight gold medal, because the large
quantity found in his system would have impeded his performance, Castro said.

He suggested that new tests could be conducted on the weightlifters if
necessary because steroids remain in the system. After one reporter said
that tests on a person's hair could determine cocaine use, but Castro said
he was unwilling to require Sotomayor to go through any more tests.

"It would be undignified to submit Sotomayor to these types of tests,"
Castro said. "That would have to be decided by Sotomayor."

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