Athletics at the 1997 Pan Arab Games

At the 1997 Pan Arab Games, the athletics events were held at the Camille Chamoun Sports City Stadium in Beirut, Lebanon from 14 to 17 July. The events were poorly attended, with the vast majority of seat in the stadium remaining empty even on the final day. However, the calibre of performances remained high in spite of this.^[1]

Originally scheduled for 1996, the games were delayed due to rebuilding efforts after war with Israel – efforts that were themselves hampered by Operation Grapes of Wrath, which targeted areas in Beirut one year earlier. Iraqi athletes did not compete for a second time running, due to regional opposition of its Invasion of Kuwait. At the games, drug tests came back positive for some athletes – a first for the competition. As a result of the rescheduling, the dates for the athletics somewhat overlapped with those of the athletics at the 1997 Mediterranean Games. Future Pan Arab Games were scheduled in the year before the Summer Olympics to avoid similar clashes of the regional events, which are attended by several of the same nations.^[2] The first day of the athletics was marred by disqualification of four sprinters (from Morocco and Algeria), who had pushed one another.^[3]

A total of 41 events were contested, of which 22 by male and 19 by female athletes. Three new women's events were introduced – the triple jump and the half marathon were entirely new, while the 3000 metres event was replaced by the 5000 metres (coming into line with global standard set at the 1995 World Championships in Athletics). The rest of the programme was similar to that of the 1992 Pan Arab Games, although racewalking events were dropped for both men and women on this occasion.^[4] The road races, held on the first day of the games, encountered traffic problems: men's bronze medallist Ahmad Adam was hit by the referee's car and a women's medallist complained that the general public driving on the same road had made her run difficult.^[5]

Morocco topped the medal table with thirteen gold medals. Qatar and Algeria each won eight gold medals, the former doing so entirely in the men's section and the latter being most successful in the women's competition. Baya Rahouli was the most successful athlete of the tournament, with the 17-year-old winning four golds in the women's section (100 metres, 100 metres hurdles, long jump and triple jump). Two other athletes won multiple individual titles: Ibrahim Ismail Muftah won a men's 200 metres/400 metres double and won both the women's 400 metres flat and 400 metres hurdles events. The women's high jump was won by a 14-year-old, of Algeria.^[6]

Medal summary[]

Men[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Saad Al-Kuwari (QAT)	10.40 GR	(QAT)	10.43	(KUW)	10.61
200 metres	Ibrahim Ismail Muftah (QAT)	20.95	Mohamed Al-Houti (OMN)	21.18	Hamoud Al-Dalhami (OMN)	21.18
400 metres	Ibrahim Ismail Muftah (QAT)	45.50	(ALG)	46.25	Fawzi Al-Shammari (KUW)	47.05
800 metres	Djabir Saïd-Guerni (ALG)	1:46.84	Mohammed Yagoub (SUD)	1:46.95	(SYR)	1:49.17
1500 metres	(MAR)	3:36.95	Mohamed Suleiman (QAT)	3:38.59	Mohammed Yagoub (SUD)	3:38.68
5000 metres	Ahmed Ibrahim Warsama (QAT)	13:35.73 GR	Alyan Al-Qahtani (KSA)	13:41.11	(MAR)	13:48.21
10,000 metres	Mustapha Bamouh (MAR)	29:22.69	Alyan Al-Qahtani (KSA)	29:26.89	(MAR)	29:28.83
110 metres hurdles	Mubarak Khasif (QAT)	14.17	(MAR)	14.41	(KUW)	14.41
400 metres hurdles	Mubarak Al-Nubi (QAT)	48.95 GR	Mustapha Sdad (MAR)	49.14	Zeid Abou Hamed (SYR)	49.68
3000 metres steeplechase	Saad Al-Asmari (KSA)	8:21.40 GR	Ali Ezzine (MAR)	8:25.51	(ALG)	8:28.69
4×100 metres relay	Oman (OMN) Hamoud Al-Dalhami	40.36	Kuwait (KUW)	40.62	Saudi Arabia (KSA)	40.81
4×400 metres relay	Algeria (ALG)	3:05.59	Qatar (QAT) Ibrahim Ismail Muftah Ali Ismail Doka	3:07.22	Kuwait (KUW)	3:10.81
Marathon	Tahar Mansouri (TUN)	2:28:19	(EGY)	2:30:45	(SUD)	2:35:35
High jump	Fakhredin Fouad (JOR)	2.17 m	Abderrahmane Hammad (ALG)	2.17 m	Jean-Claude Rabbath (LIB)	2.14 m
Pole vault	(QAT)	5.22 m GR	(EGY)	4.80 m	(QAT)	4.80 m
Long jump	Younès Moudrik (MAR)	8.11 m GR	Abdul Rahman Al-Nubi (QAT)	7.66 m	(KUW)	7.64 m
Triple jump	Salem Al-Ahmedi (KSA)	15.86 m	(KSA)	15.67 m	(EGY)	15.54 m
Shot put	Bilal Saad Mubarak (QAT)	18.97 m GR	(KSA)	17.64 m	(EGY)	17.39 m
Discus throw	(EGY)	51.80 m	Rashid Shafi Al-Dosari (QAT)	51.60 m	(EGY)	50.44 m
Hammer throw	(EGY)	69.12 m GR	Hakim Toumi (ALG)	67.00 m	(KUW)	66.86 m
Javelin throw	(SYR)	72.56 m GR	Maher Ridane (TUN)	72.20 m	(KUW)	70.74 m
Decathlon	Anis Riahi (TUN)	7506 pts	Rédouane Youcef (ALG)	7315 pts	(EGY)	6735 pts

Women[]

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Baya Rahouli (ALG)	11.98	(MAR)	12.05	(MAR)	12.20
200 metres	(MAR)	24.64	(ALG)	24.96	(TUN)	25.35
400 metres	(MAR)	54.98	(MAR)	56.19	Nahida Touhami (ALG)	57.03
800 metres	Hasna Benhassi (MAR)	2:06.29	Samira Raif (MAR)	2:06.53	(TUN)	2:07.45
1500 metres	Samira Raif (MAR)	4:15.15 GR	(ALG)	4:16.16	(ALG)	4:18.16
5000 metres	Zahra Ouaziz (MAR)	16:01.68 GR	Bouchra Benthami (MAR)	16:46.31	Souad Aït Salem (ALG)	17:04.85
10,000 metres	(MAR)	35:29.31 GR	Zhor El Kamch (MAR)	35:36.09	(TUN)	36:25.48
100 metres hurdles	Baya Rahouli (ALG)	14.11 GR	(MAR)	14.64	(ALG)	14.80
400 metres hurdles	(MAR)	58.58	Zahra Lachgar (MAR)	60.13	(TUN)	64.07
4×100 metres relay	Morocco (MAR)	47.07	Algeria (ALG)	47.66	Egypt (EGY)	50.97
4×400 metres relay	Morocco (MAR)	3:43.14	Algeria (ALG)	3:44.37	Tunisia (TUN)	4:00.49
Half marathon	Dalila Mial (ALG)	1:26:40 GR	(TUN)	1:28.03	(JOR)	1:29.02
High jump	(ALG)	1.63 m	(LIB)   (ALG)	1.60 m	Not awarded
Long jump	Baya Rahouli (ALG)	6.09 m	(EGY)	5.95 m	(MAR)	5.91 m
Triple jump	Baya Rahouli (ALG)	13.51 m w GR	(EGY)	11.79 m	(JOR)	11.27 m
Shot put	Wafaa Ismail Baghdadi (EGY)	15.70 m GR	Nada Kawar (JOR)	15.66 m	Hanan Ahmed Khaled (EGY)	14.96 m
Discus throw	Nada Kawar (JOR)	51.18 m	Hanan Ahmed Khaled (EGY)	48.78 m	(LIB)	37.88 m
Javelin throw (old javelin model)	(LIB)	40.22 m	Zahra Lachgar (MAR)	38.76 m	(LIB)	36.58 m
Heptathlon	(EGY)	4268 pts	(ALG)	4026 pts	(LIB)	3992 pts

See also[]

• 1997 Arab Athletics Championships
• 1997 World Championships in Athletics
• Athletics at the 1997 Mediterranean Games

References[]

Results

• Wamelink, Marcel. 1997 Pan Arab Games Results. Sports Results. Retrieved on 2015-04-19.
• Al Batal Al Arabi(N°:45). Arab Athletics Union. Retrieved on 2015-04-19.

External links[]

• Coverage of the Games by the Associated Press