It's party time in Sydney

The curtain comes down on the greatest show on earth on Sunday when Sydney says goodbye to the Olympics with a feast of sports action and a fireworks spectacular to beat all.

"Tonight the city of Sydney becomes the venue for the biggest party on the planet," declared Australia's Sunday Telegraph tabloid.

The Olympic organisers want the Sydney Games to go out with a bang -- with an expected global live television audience of 3.5 billion and a crowd of more than a million near the city's landmark Harbour Bridge.

A low-flying Australian Air Force fighter is to ignite a massive plume of flame to trigger off a huge firework display across the city from the Homebush Bay Olympic complex in the west to the harbour.

"Normally when you get to the end of an Olympic Games, there is a feeling that the whole thing is over and we are all going home," said Ignatius Jones, artistic director of the extravaganza.

"Not in Sydney. We are going out with a bang," he said.

At Stadium Australia in the heart of the Olympic complex, more than 7,000 performers will take to the arena for a showbusiness-style blockbuster to end the Games.

It has taken two years of planning.

The night sky will be set ablaze with fireworks that have a truly international flavour -- pyrotechnical experts from Spain, Japan, the United States and South Africa are all contributing to the explosion of light.

Police have stepped up security for the last day of the Olympics in a bid to ensure nothing spoils the big party.

They have received an average of 12 threats a day to disrupt the Games, ranging from bomb scares to attempted extortion.

But New South Wales police chief Peter Ryan said many of the threats had turned out to be hoaxes and bomb search teams had not found a single explosive device. He said Sydney's security blanket had been a vital "insurance policy".

The men's marathon will bring the curtain down on the Olympic athletics programme on Sunday.

Spanish duo Abel Anton and Martin Fiz will be among the frontrunners, as will Portugal's Antonio Pinto, for the most gruelling event of the Games -- a tough, hilly 26.2 miles (42.195km) from north Sydney to Stadium Australia.

Other sport on the bill includes the United States and France clashing in the final of the men's basketball.

Twenty-four medal events will be contested altogether.

Going into the last day, the United States head the medals table with 38 golds, ahead of Russia and China, both on 28.

African nations triumphed on Saturday, but U.S. track star Marion Jones fell short of her goal of five gold medals despite a scorching performance in the 4x400 metres relay.

Cameroon won Africa's second successive gold in the Olympic soccer tournament and African athletes won the men's 5,000 and women's 10,000 metres, while taking silver in the men's 4x400 relay, where the dominant U.S. quartet won gold.

Jones, who took gold in both the 100 and 200 metres sprints earlier in the week, ran a blistering third leg in the 4x400 metres relay to propel her team to victory.

But her dream of taking her place in the parade of Olympic greats with an unprecedented five gold medals was dashed by failure in her weakest event, the long jump on Friday, and in the 4x100 metres on Saturday, where the U.S. favourites were well beaten by the Bahamas and Jamaica.

Jones ends the games with three gold medals and two bronze, an impressive total for any athlete.

The United States were dominant in the 4x400 metres relay for men as well with the great Michael Johnson finishing his Olympic career by anchoring them to a superlative victory.

The Americans, anchored by 100 metres gold medallist Maurice Greene, also won the 4x100 metres relay but despite perfect conditions they finished well outside their own world record.

The Sydney Olympics, held in often-cool southern hemisphere spring weather, have produced no track and field world records.

The highlight of a great day for Africa was Cameroon's triumph in the Olympic soccer final, winning the title for their continent for the second time following Nigeria's win in 1996.

Cameroon, grabbing their first gold in any sport, beat Spain 5-3 on penalties in a nail-biting finale.

Trailing 2-0 at half time, Cameroon turned the match around with two goals in five minutes. The game went to a penalty shoot-out after extra time failed to produce a result.

Drugs, which have repeatedly distracted attention from sport at these Games, again made an appearance.

Russia's European indoor 400 metres champion Svetlana Pospelova registered positive for the banned steroid stanozolol in an out-of-competition drug test carried out at the Games.

However, the test cannot be regarded as a complete positive case until all the details have been discussed and analysed, athletics officials said.

The test was taken a few days after Pospelova failed to reach the second round of the 400 metres eight days ago. The 20-year-old athlete has already left the Games. If the positive is confirmed she faces a compulsory two-year ban.

Five competitors, none of them from athletics, have tested positive for banned drugs in tests carried out during the Olympics. Several athletes were banned from the Games for failing out-of-competition tests before the start.

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