1977 Arab Athletics Championships

1st Arab Athletics Championships
Host city Damascus, Syria
Participation 12 nations
Events 22


The 1977 Arab Athletics Championships was the inaugural edition of the international athletics competition between Arab countries. It took place in Damascus, Syria, coming one year after the city had hosted the 1976 Pan Arab Games. The absence of Egypt, Algeria and Morocco—the three foremost Arab nations in the sport—meant the level of competition was lower than that seen at the games. Iraq was the dominant nation, winning half the gold medals, and Tunisia was a clear second place with five golds. The hosts, Syria, placed third with a medal haul of twelve. Eight of the twelve participating nations reached the medal table.

A total of 22 athletics events were contested, all by men. The schedule mirrored that of the recent Pan Arab Games, with the exception of the hammer throw and decathlon, which were not held here. Women athletes were not included at the competition until the following edition in 1979.[1]

Iraq's Falah Naji Jarallah was the most successful athlete of the games, having taken a middle-distance running double in the 800 metres and 1500 metres. He was the only athlete to win two individual titles in Damascus. Iraq athletes won all the track events bar the long-distance races, where Tunisia's Mansour Guettaya and Abdelkader Zaddem were dominant, and the steeplechase (won by Syria's Samir Mustapha). Four Arab champions also won an individual silver as well: Guettaya (1500 m and 5000 m), Abbas Al-Aibi (400 m and 800 m), Heitham Nadim (100 m and 200 m) and Hussein Dawood (horizontal jumps).[1]

The establishment of the competition brought an increase in regional competition, particularly for African Arab nations as the African Championships in Athletics was not established until two years later.[2] For such nations, the Maghreb Athletics Championships, first held in 1967, served as a partial precursor to the broader Arab Championships.[3]

Medal summary

Event Gold Silver Bronze
100 metres  Heitham Nadim (IRQ)10.97  Hedi Essaleh (IRQ)10.99  Farhan Salmeen (QAT)11.06
200 metres  Farhan Abdesada (IRQ)21.56  Heitham Nadim (IRQ)21.69  Othman Essabi (LBA)21.70
400 metres  Abbas Al-Aibi (IRQ)46.83  Mohamed Abdeljabbar (IRQ)47.62  Mehdi Ahmed Salah (LBA)47.92
800 metres  Falah Naji Jarallah (IRQ)1:48.51  Abbas Al-Aibi (IRQ)1:49.27  Salem Mohamed Salem (LBA)1:49.61
1500 metres  Falah Naji Jarallah (IRQ)3:48.71  Mansour Guettaya (TUN)3:40.01  Mohamed Néji Henchiri (TUN)3:40.05
5000 metres  Mansour Guettaya (TUN)14:27.42  Ali Gammoudi (TUN)14:28.78  Mofleh Saad Messaoud (QAT)15:14.32
10,000 metres  Abdelkader Zaddem (TUN)30:28.51  Houcine Makni (TUN)30:30.25  Mofleh Saad Messaoud (QAT)31:42.99
110 metres hurdles  Fahan Sultan Nasir (IRQ)14.64  Abdul Jabbar Rahima (IRQ)14.78  Matar Achour (KUW)15.42
400 metres hurdles  Talib Faisal Al-Saffar (IRQ)50.72  Mohamed Najm (IRQ)52.86  Kamil El Abbassi (KSA)53.73
3000 metres steeplechase  Samir Mustapha (SYR)9:28.88  Sabir Hantoush (IRQ)9:41.32  Abdelkarim Jomâa (SYR)9:56.16
4×100 m relay  Iraq (IRQ)41.07  Kuwait (KUW)41.50  Saudi Arabia (KSA)42.17
4×400 m relay  Iraq (IRQ)3:09.76  Saudi Arabia (KSA)3:12.39  Libya (LBA)3:15.1
Marathon  Shakbawi Al-Bashi (KSA)2:36:44  Akl Hamdane (SYR)2:39:58  Nader El Outaïbi (KSA)2:46:15
High jump  Hussein Ali Hussein (IRQ)2.00 m  Dib Essaleh (SYR)1.95 m  Kamel Chaïeb (TUN)1.90 m
Pole vault  Rihan Ali Rihan Obeid (KSA)4.40 m  Abdallah Awadh (KSA)4.00 m  Alaa Eddine Salanky (SYR)3.80 m
Long jump  Youssef Khemiri (TUN)7.31 m  Hussein Dawood (IRQ)7.22 m  Khaled Methanni (TUN)7.21 m
Triple jump  Hussein Dawood (IRQ)14.98 m  Taoufik Talmined (SYR)14.82 m  Nader Jarrah (SYR)14.57 m
Shot put  Mohammed Al-Zinkawi (KUW)16.82 m  Armous Al-Majiri (LBA)16.46 m  Adnan Houry (SYR)15.15 m
Discus throw  Abderrazak Ben Hassine (TUN)48.12 m  Adnan Houry (SYR)45.22 m  Mohammed Al-Zinkawi (KUW)43.14 m
Hammer throw  Youssef Ben Abid (TUN)53.30 m  Kadhem Ali Alouane (TUN)46.24 m  Khaled Ghalloum (KUW)43.96 m
Javelin throw  Abdel Rahman El Houry (SYR)69.40 m  Tarek Chaabani (TUN)69.14 m  Ali Memmi (TUN)68.38 m
Decathlon  Elie Sfeir (LIB)6453 pts  Zakaria Younes (SYR)6295 pts  Foued Touir (SYR)6017 pts

Medal table

Rank Nation Gold Silver Bronze Total
1  Iraq 11 9 0 20
2  Tunisia 5 4 4 13
3  Syria 2 5 5 12
4  Saudi Arabia 2 2 3 7
5  Kuwait 1 1 3 5
6  Lebanon 1 0 0 1
7  Libya 0 1 4 5
8  Qatar 0 0 3 3

References

  1. 1 2 Pan Arab Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-02-14.
  2. ↑ African Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-02-19.
  3. ↑ Maghreb Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-02-19.
Results
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