MANCHESTER, England Aug 2: In terms of organization and performances, the 17th Commonwealth Games have been acknowledged as a great success.

But the rain which has fallen for three days in a row isn’t the only dampener.

The smear of drug cheating in athletics, shooting and rugby, a John McEnroe-style tantrum in the table tennis arena and an allegation of a home bias by judges in the swimming pool have taken some of the gloss off the world records and crowd-pleasing performances led by swimming superstar Ian Thorpe.

The latest embarrasment was a squabble over a disputed serve in table tennis.

The sport is not renowned for its flareups. But a row erupted in the men’s doubles quarterfinal between Ryan Jenkins and Adam Robertson of Wales and Canada’s No. 2 seeds Johnny Huang and Pradeebani Peter-Paul.

When Jenkins and Robertson clinched game two 13-11 to square the match, Huang queried the serve which he claimed was wide of the centerline although not called by the match umpire.

Huang then stormed off court, outraged at the umpire’s decision, with the match ultimately awarded to the Welsh duo who are now guaranteed at least a bronze medal for reaching the semi-finals.

“There was a lot of name-calling and swearing, which was totally unnecessary,” said Roberton’s father and coach, Barry.

“For goodness sake it was only one point to level the match score, it was not as if it was a match-deciding point. There are a lot of points which go against you in table tennis, you just have to get on with it. But he (Huang) is renowned as a bit of a hothead anyway.”

The dark clouds of drug taking have been hanging over the games since a week before they started when English pole vault champion Janine Whitlock was ruled out of the championship over a positive test for the banned steroid methandienone.

Australian shooter Phillip Adams was allowed to compete despite testing positive for a banned diuretic that was also in prescribed medication. The banned substance was contained in medication for high blood pressure and Adams said he’d been taking it for two years.

The third case involved Canadian triathlete Kelly Guest whose positive test for the banned steroid nandrolone was announced here a week ago. Guest pronounced his innocence and said the nandrolone could only have come from one of six food supplements he had been taking.

Although his sample was just over the legal limit, the ‘B’ sample confirmed the first and he not only was kicked out of the games but faces a 4-year ban.

There was more bad news for the Canadian team when rugby winger Fred Asselin was the nex to run into a doping controversy. The Canadian’s decided to keep him at home pending an inquiry as to whether a painkiller he had taken for toothache contained a banned substance.

The Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport cleared Asselin and let him travel to Manchester, but the International Rugby Board initially refused to accept that decision and has yet to decide if he can compete.

The first big doping case at the games concerned the winner of probably the top event, the men’s 100 meters. Kim Collins tested positive for the banned substance salbutamol, which aids breathing.

But the sprinter from the tiny island of St. Kitts and Nevis kept his gold medal and escaped punishment because the substance was in the medication he takes for asthma and he and his team convinced officials it was not performance enhancing.

However, Dick Pound, chairman of the World Anti-Doping Agency, said his organization would nvestigate the case as well as why Adams was allowed to compete.

In the pool, world champion Matt Welsh was unhappy at being disqualified or a false start in the 200 backstroke and suggested that he may have been the victim of home town bias.

The Australian was convinced he did nothing to cause his disqualification and said he felt harshly treated by the officials.

“To be honest, yeah, I do. If I made a mistake, I wouldn’t have a problem with it,” he said. “I’d accept my problem and move on. But I haven’t made a mistake and that’s where the real problem lies.”

He remarked that the judges had reinstated Australian medley swimmer Jenny Reilly after initially disqualifying her.

“I think one mistake is enough for (the officials) to make and if it happens again, I don’t think anyone else will have any luck like I did,” he said,

Without Welsh in the final, the gold medal went to James Goddard of England with Scotsman Gregor Tait second and England’s Simon Militis taking the bronze.

The series of black marks on an otherwise successful games have somehow matched the weather at this northwest city.

After two days of warm sunshine and almost cloudless skies, it has rained for three days in a row, forcing players to run for cover at lawn bowls and field hockey with matches postponed sometimes for several hours because of waterlogged field.

But sellout crowds have enjoyed some great performances on the track despite the absence of some big stars and there’s been more excitement than expected in the pool with host England collecting six golds to ensure the Australians (11) haven’t dominated entirely.—AP