By TORONTO SUN SPORTS

  SYDNEY -- Canada's Dick Pound last night was named acting president of the International Olympic Committee after Juan Antonio Samaranch flew home to Barcelona to be with his gravely ill wife.

 Though Maria Theresa Samaranch had been in poor health for a while, she took a turn for the worse yesterday. She reportedly is suffering from cancer.

 Pound, favoured to succeed Samaranch as IOC president after these Summer Games, was notified of the development yesterday during the opening ceremony.

 Pound, a Montreal-based lawyer, stepped down as a vice-president of the IOC earlier this week after his four-year term expired but he remains Samaranch's right-hand man.