AFTER a pipe bomb tore the heart out of the centenary Games, the world's top athletes, for whom the Olympics offers the pinnacle of ambition, spoke with one voice and it was angry.

Their defiance echoed the determination of Atlantans who saw their giant street laity destroyed on Saturday in a hail of shrapnel from the crude bomb in the Olympic Centennial Park, a public entertainment area that had become a focal point for visitors to the Games.

Tennis star Monica Seles, the mental scars still healing three years after a crazed fan stabbed her, put it simply. "You just have to go on."

"I am still trying to go to the track and field tonight and go to other events and get n with my life," she said. "That's what happened after the stabbing."

Andre Agassi, the most flamboyant talent on the international tennis circuit, did not mince his words in saying what he thought.

"I think "they should hang the guy by the nuts and excused him publicly if they catch him."

Just 20 hours after the bomb, athletic excellence took centre stage once more at the Games when the Jamaican born Canadian sprinter, Donovan Bailey, eclipsed the world record in the 100 metres final to become the fastest man on the planet.

He was quick to deliver an angry message to the bomber. "I think it is pathetic that these idiots are trying to screw it up for everybody."

For American Gail Devers, the joy of retaining her 100 metres title was tinged with sadness.

"It's time for me to be joyous over what I did but it's also time for sadness," she said. "To me the bomb stood for destroying the Olympic spint."

The multi millionaires of the US basketball "Dream Team" who are among the most recognisable superstars at the Games, said they would not be leaving town.

"To not play would be the entirely wrong response to an act of cowardice," said their coach Lenny Wilkens.

Charles Barclay, the team's court jester, was in sombre mood. "I just feel bad for all the families involved right now."

But, he said, to leave now would mean letting the bombers win.

Ireland's Michelle Smith, who won three gold medals, was out celebrating when the bomb went off. She said her first thought was to get back to the safety-of she Olympic village.

She delivered a forceful message to her fellow athletes trying to refocus their minds after the disaster. "Concentrate on the job you have to do. It will be the greatest experience of your life."