RIO DE JANEIRO (Reuters) — Churandy Martina pipped Darvis Patton at the line to win a dramatic 100 metres sprint and claim the Netherlands Antilles their first gold medal of the Pan-Am Games on Tuesday.The Caribbean nation also took a bronze in women’s hockey where the gold went to Argentina for the sixth games in a row, a run which began in Indianaopolis in 1987.

Crowds continued to be disappointingly small at most venues, the only exception being team sports in which the hosts were involved.

The athletics took place in front of a sparse crowd at the state-of-the-art Joao Havelange stadium while only a handful of spectators saw the soccer semi-finals at the huge Maracana, where 70,000 had seen Brazil lose to Ecuador in the previous round.

A packed house, however, turned up for the women’s basketball final where the US, despite vicious booing every time they were in possession of the ball, beat Brazil 79-66 to claim one of seven golds for the country on the day.

Organisational headaches continued as the softball — called off on Monday because of wind damage to the troubled City of Rock venue — was postponed again, this time because of a waterlogged pitch.

The organisers were forced to re-format the tournament and divide the eight teams into two groups of four rather than one single group.

Five athletics finals took place on Tuesday and the biggest of them, the men’s 100 metres, appeared to be headed for the US as Patton surged ahead.

However Martina, who had false-started at the first attempt, burst back and snatched victory on the line.

The Curacao-born runner won in 10.15 seconds, 0.02 seconds ahead of his rival, while Brendan Christian of Antigua finished third. Former world champion Kim Collins of St Kitts & Nevis was fifth.

Mikele Barber gained some consolation for the US by winning the women’s 100 metres in 11.02 seconds.

Canada took two of the track and field golds, Dylan Armstrong winning the men’s shot put with a throw of 20.10 metres and Diane Cummins winning the women’s 800 metres in 1:59.75 seconds.

World champion Zulia Calatayud of Cuba was beaten into third place with a time of 2:00.34.

Irving Saladino claimed Panama’s first gold medal by winning the men’s long jump with a leap of 8.28 metres while former Olympic and world champion Ivan Pedroso of Cuba managed fourth with a modest 7.86 metres.

Argentina came from behind to beat US 4-2 in the women’s hockey final.

Tiffany Snow gave the US a halftime lead before Alejandra Gulla, Rosario Luchetti, Agustina Bouza and Claudia Burkart replied for the Lionesses.

Netherlands Antilles completed a memorable day by taking the bronze with a 2-1 win over Chile.