Athletics at the 1997 West Asian Games
At the 1997 West Asian Games. the athletics events were held in Tehran, Iran in November 1997. It had a men's only programme containing twenty-two track and field events. All performances were affected by the altitude of the host city (3900 ft/1189 m).
| Athletics at the 1997 West Asian Games | |
|---|---|
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| Venue | Azadi Stadium |
The host nation dominated the proceedings, winning half of the gold medals on offer (11) and more than half of the total medals with its haul of 38 medals. Kuwait was a comfortable second with eight golds among its fifteen medals, while Jordan was a distant third with one gold in its total of five medals. Seven nations reached the medal table in the athletics competition.
The competition was of a relatively low standard for an international athletics meet. Virtually all the performances were closer to the level expected in elite women's competitions. Among the better performers were Maksim Smetanin, a 1996 Olympian from Kyrgyzstan who won the triple jump with 15.90 metres. Two young athletes in the throws discus thrower Abbas Samimi (aged 20), sprinter Fawzi Al-Shammari (aged 18) and hammer thrower Dilshod Nazarov (aged 15) secured their first major medals at an international meeting – all went on to claim multiple medals at the Asian Games and Asian Athletics Championships later in their careers.
Medalists
| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze | |||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 100 m | Musaed Al-Azemi | 10.83 | Abdolghaffar Saghar | 10.87 | Fawzi Al-Shammari | 11.05 |
| 200 m | Khaled Al-Johar | 21.34 | Musaed Al-Azemi | 21.37 | Maisam Delvarian | 22.05 |
| 400 m | Khaled Al-Johar | 46.51 | Fawzi Al-Shammari | 48.17 | Mehdi Jelodarzadeh | 49.07 |
| 800 m | Mohammad Reza Molaei | 1:54.40 | Boris Kaveshnikov | 1:54.73 | Mehdi Jelodarzadeh | 1:55.58 |
| 1500 m | Ahmad Yazdanian | 3:57.74 | Farhad Heidari | 3:58.24 | Rasoul Mohammadbeigi | 4:14.33 |
| 5000 m | Jafar Babakhani | 14:39.04 | Awad Al-Hasini | 14:43.94 | Ahmad Zarekar | 14:45.57 |
| 10,000 m | Ahmad Zarekar | 30:32.38 | Awad Al-Hasini | 30:56.80 | Ebrahim Etaati | 31:15.01 |
| 110 m hurdles | Bader Abbas | 14.42 | Zeyad Abdulrazak | 14.70 | Fadin Mohammadzadeh | 14.92 |
| 400 m hurdles | Hamid Reza Fardinpour | 52.53 | Majid Foroutannia | 53.49 | Baýmyrat Aşirmyradow.svg.png){kind=small} | 54.35 |
| 3000 m steeplechase | Jafar Babakhani | 9:12.10 | Abolfazl Mahmoudian | 9:12.17 | Karim Seyedin | 10:25.26 |
| 4 × 100 m relay | | 42.09 | | 43.87 | | 43.92 |
| 4 × 400 m relay | | 3:11.63 | | 3:13.93 | | 3:32.37 |
| 10,000 m walk | Gholamreza Zare | 45:34 | Ahmad Fazeli | 46:55 | Hamid Reza Kahrizi | 47:23 |
| High jump | Fakhredin Fouad | 2.10 | Hassan Banitorfi | 2.00 | Juma Niýazow | 1.95 |
| Alireza Ghiasi | ||||||
| Pole vault | Hassan Mirseifi | 4.20 | Mehdi Mobini | 4.20 | Abdolmajid Sotoudehnia | 4.10 |
| Long jump | Khaled Al-Bakheet | 7.35 | Husein Al-Youhah | 7.19 | Aleksandr Tumanow | 6.79 |
| Triple jump | Maksim Smetanin | 15.90 | Mehrzad Charkhian | 15.75 | Khaled Al-Bakheet | 15.35 |
| Shot put | Ali Rahmani | 16.97 | Ali Sayyah | 16.51 | Tareq Al-Najjar | 15.80 |
| Discus throw | Abbas Samimi | 52.90 | Tareq Al-Najjar | 51.90 | Fariborz Malek | 51.04 |
| Hammer throw | Naser Al-Jarallah | 64.06 | Ghorban Salahi | 63.80 | Dilshod Nazarov | 59.94 |
| Javelin throw | Firas Al-Mahamid | 71.10 | Ghanem Zaid | 65.94 | Danghatar Yaghouti | 65.84 |
| Decathlon | Ali Feizi | 6213 | Abdollah Hedayati | 5958 | Hamid Asiabi | 5935 |
Medal table
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | | 11 | 13 | 14 | 38 |
| 2 | | 8 | 5 | 2 | 15 |
| 3 | | 1 | 3 | 1 | 5 |
| 4 | | 1 | 1 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | | 0 | 0 | 5 | 5 |
| 7 | | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (7 nations) | 22 | 22 | 23 | 67 | |