SANTO DOMINGO, 8 August 2003 — World champion Felix Sanchez, who represents the Dominican Republic but has never run there before, brought the Pan American Games hosts their first gold on Wednesday when he won the 400 meters hurdles.
Santo Domingo’s Olympic stadium was packed to its 30,000 capacity to see the 26-year-old, who was raised in the United States and became a national hero in the Dominican Republic when he won the world championship at Edmonton two years ago.
The jubilation deflected attention from the long jump where Olympic and world champion Ivan Pedroso of Cuba warmed up for this month’s world championships in Paris by winning his third successive Pan American title.
All eyes, however, were on Sanchez, who was born in New York of Dominican parents, and hundreds of people were locked outside of the stadium an hour before he was due to run.
Sanchez was quick off the mark, took the lead after the sixth hurdle and held off a challenge from Eric Thomas of the United States to win with a Games record time of 48.19.
He was presented his gold medal by Dominican Republic president Hipolito Mejia, who was jeered when his name was announced.
By the time Pedroso won the long jump, most of the crowd had already left the arena.
The Cuban, who will be aiming to win a fifth consecutive world championship in Paris, won with a jump of 8.23 meters, overtaking compatriot Luis Meliz who produced 8.20 with his second attempt but could not improve. Victor Castillo of Venezuela took the bronze medal with 7.96.
Sanchez’s victory made up for disappointment for the hosts elsewhere.
The Dominicans missed out on gold in the men’s basketball after being comfortably beaten 89-62 by Brazil and their tragi-comic hockey team suffered yet another hammering as they went down 23-0 to the United States.
Even so, it was the Dominican team’s best result of the tournament following a 30-0 mauling by Argentina and a 25-0 drubbing by Chile.
