Athletics at the 1997 Jeux de la Francophonie

At the 1997 Jeux de la Francophonie, the athletics events were held in Antananarivo, Madagascar in August and September 1997. A total of 43 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 20 by female athletes. Of the forty nations present at the competition, fifteen reached the medal table in the athletics competition.

The regional leader France easily topped the medal table with eleven gold medals and 38 in total. This was almost twice as many as second placed Canada (seven golds and twenty altogether). The hosts Madagascar had a strong showing in third place with seven golds and 16 medals – a performance which helped it into second place in the medals at the games. Senegal and Romania were the next best performers with four golds each.

A total of eight were set during the competition. On the men's side, Jean-Olivier Zirignon won the 100 metres in 10.07 seconds, Alejandro Argudin ran 49.22 seconds for the 400 metres hurdles, the high jump saw and Khemraj Naiko both reach 2.23 m, Cheikh Touré won the long jump with 8.19 m and set a new javelin throw standard of 75.82 m. On the women's side ran 16:44.2 minutes to win the inaugural 5000 metres title (which replaced the previous 3000 metres event), Laurence Manfredi threw a record of 16.70 m in the shot put and set a heptathlon games best of 5650 points.^[1]

Medal summary[]

Men[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: +0.3 m/s)	Jean-Olivier Zirignon (CIV)	10.07 GR	(CIV)	10.33	Antoine Boussombo (GAB)	10.42
200 metres (wind: -2.2 m/s)	Joseph Loua (GUI)	20.54	(CIV)	20.94	Antoine Boussombo (GAB)	21.00
400 metres	Ibrahima Wade (SEN)	45.74	Hachim Ndiaye (SEN)	46.16	Eric Milazar (MRI)	46.67
800 metres	Arthémon Hatungimana (BDI)	1:46.83	Zach Whitmarsh (CAN)	1:48.02	Assane Diallo (SEN)	1:48.26
1500 metres	Ovidiu Olteanu (ROM)	3:45.37	(CAN)	3:45.71	(FRA)	3:47.67
5000 metres	(BDI)	14:45.3	(ROM)	14:46.1	(MAD)	14:46.6
10,000 metres	(MAD)	29:55.8	Tharcisse Gashaka (BDI)	29:58.02	(ROM)	30:21.33
Marathon	(FRA)	2:24:34	(NIG)	2:34:12	(MAD)	2:44:10
110 metres hurdles	Jonathan Nsenga (BEL)	13.56	Jean-Marc Grava (FRA)	13.71	Sébastien Denis (FRA)	13.72
400 metres hurdles	Alejandro Argudin (ROM)	49.22 GR	Jean-Paul Bruwier (BEL)	50.02	Gilbert Hashan (MRI)	50.46
3000 metres steeplechase	Graeme Fell (CAN)	8:55.56	(Quebec)	8:56.16	(BDI)	8:57.38
4×100 metres relay	Ivory Coast (CIV) Éric Pacôme N'Dri Jean-Olivier Zirignon Ahmed Douhou Ibrahim Meité	38.7	Cameroon (CMR)	39.3	Benin (BEN) ? ? ? Antoine Boussombo	39.5
4×400 metres relay	Senegal (SEN) Seydou Loum Hachim Ndiaye Ibrahima Wade	3:02.0	Mauritius (MRI) Fernando Augustin Rudy Tirvengadum Gilbert Hashan Eric Milazar	3:07.3	France (FRA) Ousmane Diarra Marc Raquil	3:07.4
20 km walk	Hatem Ghoula (TUN)	1:26:39	Sylvain Caudron (FRA)	1:27:59	(FRA)	1:29:30
High jump	(CAN)	2.23 m GR	Khemraj Naiko (MRI)	2.23 m GR	Olivier Sanou (BUR)	2.15 m
Pole vault	(FRA)	5.40 m	(FRA)	5.20 m	(CAN)	5.10 m
Long jump	Cheikh Touré (SEN)	8.19 m GR	Franck Zio (BUR)	8.02 m (w)	(CAN)	7.82 m
Triple jump	Toussaint Rabenala (MAD)	16.50 m	Oral O'Gilvie (CAN)	16.49 m	(FRA)	16.46 m
Shot put	Stéphane Vial (FRA)	17.79 m	(FRA)	17.75 m	(FRA)	17.14 m
Discus throw	Costel Grasu (ROM)	59.02 m	(FRA)	58.11 m	Mickaël Conjungo (CAF)	57.47 m
Hammer throw	Frédéric Kuhn (FRA)	70.90 m	David Chaussinand (FRA)	69.62 m	(CAN)	68.40 m
Javelin throw	(SEN)	75.82 m GR	Vitolio Tipotio (FRA)	72.61 m	Maher Ridane (TUN)	70.63 m
Decathlon	(FRA)	7477 pts	(FRA)	7376 pts	Anis Riahi (TUN)	7356 pts

Women[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: -1.9 m/s)	Hanitriniaina Rakotondrabe (MAD)	11.51	Georgette Nkoma (CMR)	11.65	Lalao Ravaonirina (MAD)	11.66
200 metres (wind: +0.1 m/s)	(CAN)	23.40	Anita Mormand (FRA)	23.53	Aïda Diop (SEN)	23.78
400 metres	Marie-Louise Bévis (FRA)	52.91	Fabienne Ficher (FRA)	52.99	Mireille Nguimgo (CMR)	53.18
800 metres	(FRA)	2:06.32	(CAN)	2:06.37	Virginie Fouquet (FRA)	2:06.73
1500 metres	(CAN)	4:19.80	(FRA)	4:23.68	(MAD)	4:26.32
5000 metres	(ROM)	16:44.2 GR	Rodica Nagel (FRA)	17:04.5	(BEL)	17:06.7
10,000 metres	(CAN)	34:27.57	Clarisse Rasoarizay (MAD)	34:59.75	Tina Connelly (CAN)	35:27.21
100 metres hurdles (wind: -1.3 m/s)	Nicole Ramalalanirina (MAD)	13.21	(FRA)	13.60	Mame Tacko Diouf (SEN)	13.68
400 metres hurdles	(MAD)	57.20	(MAD)	57.28	Mame Tacko Diouf (SEN)	57.33
4×100 metres relay	Madagascar (MAD) ? Lalao Ravaonirina ? Hanitriniaina Rakotrondrabe	44.45	France (FRA) Linda Ferga	44.46	Canada (CAN)	44.61
4×400 metres relay	Cameroon (CMR)	3:34.40	France (FRA) Marie-Louise Bévis Fabienne Ficher Anita Mormand	3:34.99	Madagascar (MAD)	3:35.09
Marathon	Clarisse Rasoarizay (MAD)	2:56:24	(MAD)	3:02:16	(TUN)	3:06:13
10 km walk	(FRA)	49:18	Fatiha Ouali (FRA)	50:51	(Quebec)	56:04
High jump	Sabrina De Leeuw (BEL)	1.85 m	(Quebec)	1.82 m	Irène Tiendrébéogo (BUR)	1.82 m
Long jump	(CAN)	6.30 m	Linda Ferga (FRA)	6.29 m	(MAD)	6.04 m
Triple jump	Valérie Guiyoule (FRA)	13.98 m	Françoise Mbango Etone (CMR)	13.75 m	Michelle Hastick (CAN)	13.64 m
Shot put	Laurence Manfredi (FRA)	16.70 m GR	Georgette Reed (CAN)	15.97 m	(TUN)	14.95 m
Discus throw	Isabelle Devaluez (FRA)	55.81 m	(FRA)	47.46 m	Georgette Reed (CAN)	46.73 m
Javelin throw (old model)	(Quebec)	49.99 m	Bernadette Perrine (MRI)	49.85 m	(CAN)	46.25 m
Heptathlon	(CAN)	5650 pts GR	(FRA)	5544 pts	(FRA)	5296 pts

Medal table[]

  *   Host nation (Madagascar)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	France (FRA)	11	19	8	38
2	Canada (CAN)	7	5	8	20
3	Madagascar (MAD)*	7	3	6	16
4	Senegal (SEN)	4	1	4	9
5	Romania (ROM)	4	1	1	6
6	Ivory Coast (CIV)	2	2	0	4
7	Belgium (BEL)	2	1	1	4
	Burundi (BDI)	2	1	1	4
9	Cameroon (CMR)	1	3	1	5
10	Quebec (QBC)	1	2	1	4
11	Tunisia (TUN)	1	0	4	5
12	Guinea (GUI)	1	0	0	1
13	Mauritius (MRI)	0	3	2	5
14	Burkina Faso (BUR)	0	1	2	3
15	Niger (NIG)	0	1	0	1
16	Gabon (GAB)	0	0	2	2
17	Benin (BEN)	0	0	1	1
	Central African Republic (CAF)	0	0	1	1
Totals (18 nations)		43	43	43	129

References[]

Notes

Sources

• Francophone Games. GBRathletics. Retrieved on 2013-05-06.
• Resultats. Francophonie. Retrieved on 2013-05-06.