1979 South American Championships in Athletics

The 1979 South American Championships in Athletics were held in Bucaramanga, Colombia, between 31 October and 4 November.

It was the last edition to feature women's pentathlon before replacing it with the heptathlon.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Altevir de Araújo  Brazil	10.1 CR	Manuel Ramírez  Colombia	10.4	Reinaldo Lizardi  Venezuela	10.6
200 metres	Altevir de Araújo  Brazil	20.5 CR	Katsuhiko Nakaia  Brazil	20.8	Héctor Daley  Panama	21.1
400 metres	Geraldo José Pegado  Brazil	46.20 CR	Antônio Dias Ferreira  Brazil	46.90	Héctor Daley  Panama	47.40
800 metres	Cristián Molina  Chile	1:47.8 CR	William Wuycke  Venezuela	1:47.9	Pedro Cáceres  Argentina	1:48.5
1500 metres	Emilio Ulloa  Chile	3:47.0 CR	José Velásquez  Venezuela	3:47.5	Wilson de Santana  Brazil	3:47.9
5000 metres	Alejandro Silva  Chile	13:57.2 CR	Domingo Tibaduiza  Colombia	14:03.4	Johnny Pérez  Bolivia	14:16.1
10,000 metres	Silvio Salazar  Colombia	28:50.4	Domingo Tibaduiza  Colombia	28:51.2	Víctor Maldonado  Venezuela	29:37.3
Marathon †	Luis Barbosa  Colombia	1:56:12	Alfonso Torres  Colombia	1:57:25	Lucirio Garrido  Venezuela	1:59:30
3000 metres steeplechase	Germán Aranda  Colombia	8:52.3	Elói Schleder  Brazil	8:57.4	Johnny Pérez  Bolivia	8:58.6 (NR)
110 metres hurdles	Wellington da Nóbrega  Brazil	14.4	Carlos dos Santos  Brazil	14.6	Andrés Lyon  Chile	14.9
400 metres hurdles	Antônio Dias Ferreira  Brazil	50.7 CR	Donizete Soares  Brazil	51.1	José Davis  Venezuela	51.5
4 × 100 metres relay	Venezuela Reinaldo Lizardi Ely Zabala Esteban Briceño Miguel Condé	40.0 CR	Brazil Milton de Castro Geraldo Pegado Katsuhiko Nakaya Altevir de Araújo	40.2	Argentina Angel Gagliano Gustavo Dubarbier Carlos Gambetta Ricardo Donda	40.4
4 × 400 metres relay	Venezuela Hipolito Brown Alexis Herrera Oswaldo Zea William Wuycke	3:09.8	Argentina Gabriel Castellá Carlos Gambetta Pedro Cáceres Angel Gagliano	3:10.5	Brazil Donizete Soares Wilson dos Santos Antônio Ferreira Geraldo Pegado	3:10.5
20 kilometres road walk †	Ernesto Alfaro  Colombia	1:29:31	Waldemar da Silva  Brazil	1:29:37	Jorge Quiñones  Colombia	1:29:51
High jump	Daniel Mamet  Argentina	2.12 CR	Geraldo Rodrigues  Brazil	2.09	Iraja Cecy  Brazil	2.09
Pole vault	Fernando Ruocco  Uruguay	4.70 CR	Tito Steiner  Argentina	4.60	Henry Gómez  Chile	4.45
Long jump	Oswaldo Torres  Venezuela	7.67	Carlos Gambetta  Argentina	7.58	Francisco de Oliveira  Brazil	7.57
Triple jump	José Salazar  Venezuela	16.23	Francisco de Oliveira  Brazil	16.15	Celso Pereira  Brazil	15.83
Shot put	Gert Weil  Chile	16.42	Jesús Ramos  Venezuela	16.22	José Jacques  Brazil	16.20
Discus throw	Sérgio Thomé  Brazil	56.10*	Luis Palacios  Venezuela	54.42*	José Jacques  Brazil	53.10*
Hammer throw	José Vallejo  Argentina	63.44	Celso de Moraes  Brazil	61.44	Daniel Gómez  Argentina	57.60
Javelin throw	Angel Garmendia  Argentina	72.32 CR	Orángel Rodríguez  Venezuela	70.32	Paulo Hasse  Brazil	68.84
Decathlon	Alfredo Silva  Chile	6991	Ramón Montezuma  Venezuela	6964	Claudio Escauriza  Paraguay	6791

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Beatriz Allocco  Argentina	11.7 =CR	Carmela Bolívar  Peru	11.8	Esmeralda de Jesus Garcia  Brazil	11.8
200 metres	Beatriz Allocco  Argentina	23.5	Tânia Miranda  Brazil	24.1	Esmeralda de Jesus Garcia  Brazil	24.1
400 metres	Tânia Miranda  Brazil	54.2 CR	Margarita Grün  Uruguay	54.8	Miriam Rojas  Colombia	54.8
800 metres	Alejandra Ramos  Chile	2:04.2 AR	Nancy González  Chile	2:09.8	Adriana Marchena  Venezuela	2:10.4
1500 metres	Alejandra Ramos  Chile	4:23.2 CR	Teresa Rodríguez  Colombia	4:32.6	Monica Regonesi  Chile	4:36.1
100 metres hurdles	Yvonne Neddermann  Argentina	14.2	Olga Verissimo  Brazil	14.4	Beatriz Capotosto  Argentina	14.7
4 × 100 metres relay	Argentina Marisol Besada Belkis Fava Yvonne Neddermann Beatriz Allocco	46.0	Brazil Maria Teresa Soares Olga Verissimo Esmeralda de Jesus Garcia Sheila de Oliveira	46.1	Venezuela Glennis Báez Adriana Marchena Elsa Antúnez Yaneris Guerra	46.6
4 × 400 metres relay	Brazil Maria Teresa Soares Joyce Felipe dos Santos Conceição Geremias Tânia Miranda	3:42.0 AR	Chile María Eugenia Guzmán Carla Herencia Nancy González Alejandra Ramos	3:44.6	Colombia Ángela Mancilla Luz Villa Maŕia Ocoro Miriam Rojas	3:45.1
High jump	Ana Maria Marcon  Brazil	1.75	Liliana Arigoni  Argentina	1.75	Beatriz Bonfim  Brazil	1.70
Long jump	Themis Zambrzycki  Brazil	6.03	Conceição Geremias  Brazil	5.95	Yvonne Neddermann  Argentina	5.92
Shot put	Magdalena Gómez  Colombia	13.94	Themis Zambrzycki  Brazil	13.84	Maria Boso  Brazil	13.24
Discus throw	Sandra Peres  Brazil	46.11	Maria Boso  Brazil	42.54	Selene Saldarriaga  Colombia	41.78
Javelin throw	Marli dos Santos  Brazil	50.92 CR	Neuza Trolezzi  Brazil	45.07	Ana María Campillay  Argentina	42.30
Pentathlon	Themis Zambrzycki  Brazil	4117	Conceição Geremias  Brazil	3880	Yvonne Neddermann  Argentina	3833

† = short course (c37km)
* = light implement (1.75 kg)
† = short course

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Brazil (BRA)	13	18	12	43
2	Argentina (ARG)	7	4	7	18
3	Chile (CHI)	7	2	3	12
4	Colombia (COL)	5	5	4	14
5	Venezuela (VEN)	4	6	6	16
6	Uruguay (URU)	1	1	0	2
7	Peru (PER)	0	1	0	1
8	Bolivia (BOL)	0	0	2	2
	Panama (PAN)	0	0	2	2
10	Paraguay (PAR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (10 entries)		37	37	37	111

• Men Results – GBR Athletics
• Women Results – GBR Athletics
• Medallists