1977 Arab Athletics Championships

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 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 ). Four Arab champions also won an individual silver as well: Guettaya (1500 m and 5000 m), Abbas Al-Aibi (400 m and 800 m), (100 m and 200 m) and (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	(IRQ)	10.97	(IRQ)	10.99	(QAT)	11.06
200 metres	(IRQ)	21.56	(IRQ)	21.69	(LBA)	21.70
400 metres	Abbas Al-Aibi (IRQ)	46.83	(IRQ)	47.62	(LBA)	47.92
800 metres	(IRQ)	1:48.51	Abbas Al-Aibi (IRQ)	1:49.27	(LBA)	1:49.61
1500 metres	(IRQ)	3:48.71	Mansour Guettaya (TUN)	3:40.01	(TUN)	3:40.05
5000 metres	Mansour Guettaya (TUN)	14:27.42	(TUN)	14:28.78	(QAT)	15:14.32
10,000 metres	Abdelkader Zaddem (TUN)	30:28.51	(TUN)	30:30.25	(QAT)	31:42.99
110 metres hurdles	(IRQ)	14.64	Abdul Jabbar Rahima (IRQ)	14.78	(KUW)	15.42
400 metres hurdles	(IRQ)	50.72	(IRQ)	52.86	(KSA)	53.73
3000 metres steeplechase	(SYR)	9:28.88	(IRQ)	9:41.32	(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	(KSA)	2:36:44	(SYR)	2:39:58	(KSA)	2:46:15
High jump	(IRQ)	2.00 m	(SYR)	1.95 m	(TUN)	1.90 m
Pole vault	(KSA)	4.40 m	(KSA)	4.00 m	(SYR)	3.80 m
Long jump	(TUN)	7.31 m	(IRQ)	7.22 m	(TUN)	7.21 m
Triple jump	(IRQ)	14.98 m	(SYR)	14.82 m	(SYR)	14.57 m
Shot put	(KUW)	16.82 m	(LBA)	16.46 m	Adnan Houry (SYR)	15.15 m
Discus throw	(TUN)	48.12 m	Adnan Houry (SYR)	45.22 m	(KUW)	43.14 m
Hammer throw	(TUN)	53.30 m	(TUN)	46.24 m	(KUW)	43.96 m
Javelin throw	(SYR)	69.40 m	(TUN)	69.14 m	(TUN)	68.38 m
Decathlon	(LIB)	6453 pts	(SYR)	6295 pts	(SYR)	6017 pts

Medal table[]

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Iraq (IRQ)	11	9	0	20
2	Tunisia (TUN)	5	4	4	13
3	Syria (SYR)	2	5	5	12
4	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	2	2	3	7
5	Kuwait (KUW)	1	1	3	5
6	Lebanon (LIB)	1	0	0	1
7	Libya (LBA)	0	1	4	5
8	Qatar (QAT)	0	0	3	3
Totals (8 nations)		22	22	22	66

References[]

Results

• Al Batal Al Arabi (N°:1). Arab Athletics Union. Retrieved on 2015-02-14.