Venezuela to host Historic South American Championships

Barquisimeto, Venezuela  For the first time in the history of the country, Venezuela will host this weekend the 42nd edition of the South American Championships, the oldest area championships in the World. The venue will be the “Estadio Máximo Viloria” in the city of Barquisimeto, capital of the State of Lara.

Barquisimeto was founded in 1552 by Juan de Villegas, under the name of “Nueva Segovia de Buría”. The city is located at an altitude of 552 meters above sea level, and has a population of approximately 800,000.

The rich history of the South American Championships started in Montevideo, Uruguay, back in 1919. In those championships, only Uruguay, Chile and Argentina took part. Brazil competed in the event for the first time in the 7th edition, which took place in Buenos Aires in 1931.

The event has been held biannually since 1961, with the exception of 1973, when the competition was moved to 1974, but then it continued its periodicity in 1975.

The first time women competed was in the 11th edition, which happened in Lima, Peru.

Since 1919, the biggest names of the athletics history of the continent left their mark in the event, with names such as Luis Antonio Brunetto (ARG), Manuel Plaza (CHI), Juan Carlos Zabala (ARG), Delfo Cabrera (ARG), Noemí Simonetto (ARG), José Telles da Conceição (BRA), Adhemar Ferreira da Silva (BRA), Arnoldo Devonish (VEN), Marlene Ahrens (CHI), Nelson Prudêncio (BRA), João Carlos de Oliveira (BRA), Joaquim Cruz (BRA), Robson Caetano da Silva (BRA), Ximena Restrepo (COL) and Jefferson Pérez (ECU), which are all of South American Olympic medalists -along with Panama’s Lloyd LaBeach.

Those greats, along with others, have enriched the history of this traditional event.

Santiago de Chile has been the most repeated venue, by hosting 7 editions, and Brazil has been the dominating country since 1974. Actually, the last country to take an overall title was Venezuela in Santiago de Chile 1974, when they won the men’s competition. Since then, it’s been all “verdeamarelho”.

The athletes with most individual titles are Manuel Plaza and Osvaldo Suárez (ARG) with 11, followed by Robson da Silva with 10 and Valerio Vallania (ARG) with 9, on the men’s side.

Conceição Aperecida Geremias with 10 is the most decorated women, followed by Alejandra Ramos (CHI) with 9, and Brazil’s Silvina das Graças Pereira, Wanda dos Santos and Elisângela Adriano with 8.

No world records have been set at the event, though Adhemar Ferreira da Silva was 1cm short of the Triple Jump WR in 1954. Adhemar had won the Olympic title in Helsinki ’52 with a mark of 16.22m, but Soviet Leonid Shcherbakov jumped 16.23 in Moscow on July 19, 1953 to improve that performance.

At the 18th edition of the South American’s in São Paulo, Adhemar jumped 16.22, to equal his own personal record on April 21st, and one year later, at the 2nd edition of the Pan American Games in Ciudad de México, the great Brazilian leaped to 16.56m, a World Record that stood for 3 years, and was his all-time best.

In recent years, Maurren Higa Maggi also obtained a remarkable performance in the Long Jump, by registering 7.26 in Bogotá ’99. That mark led the World Lists that year, and placed her in the 9th  in the all-time rankings.

Last year, the South American Confederation (Consudatle) published a book with the history of all South American Championships. Edited by Edgardo Fontana, Winfried Kramer and Luis Vinker, the book has full results, details, statistics and profiles of the most important South American athletes.

The last edition took place in Manaus, Brazil in 2001. There the hosts won 33 gold medals (and a total of 69), followed by Argentina with 5 (17 in total).

Brazil comes to Barquisimeto with a very powerful team, which includes sprinters André da Silva, Claudinei da Silva, Geisa Coutinho, and jumpers like Maggi or Jadel Gregório.

Argentina has its best hopes of gold in throwers Marcelo Pugliese and Juan Cerra, and vaulter Alejandra García, Chile in putter Marco Antonio Verni, Colombia in Zuleima Araméndiz and Sabina Moya in the Javelin, and Venezuela in the men’s Javelin with Manuel Fuenmayor.

The competition starts on Friday 20th and will end on Sunday 22nd.

South American Championships – Championships Records
Men

100m

10.16A/0.4

André Domingos da Silva

BRA

Bogotá (heats)

1999

200m

20.44A 

Robson Caetano da Silva

BRA

Medellín

1989

400m

45.11

Sanderlei Claro Parrela

BRA

Manaus

2001

800m

1:46.16

José Luiz Barbosa

BRA

Manaus

1995

1500m

3:36.47

Hudson Santos de Souza

BRA

Manaus

2001

5000m

13:51.66

Ronaldo da Costa

BRA

Manaus

1995

10000m

28:37.2

Antonio Silio

ARG

Lima

1993

100mh

13.64/0.0

Márcio Simão de Souza

BRA

Manaus

2001

400mh

48.63

Eronilde Nunes de Araújo

BRA

Manaus

1995

3000m St

8:35.40

Wander do Prado Moura

BRA

Mar del Plata

1997

HJ

2.26

Gilmar Mayo

COL

Mar del Plata

1997

2.26A

Fabrício de Azevedo Romero

BRA

Bogotá (1º)

1999

2.26A

Gilmar Mayo

COL

Bogotá (2º)

1999

PV

5.40

Javier Benítez

ARG

Manaus

2001

LJ

8.05/0.9

Douglas de Souza

BRA

Manaus (1º)

1995

8.05/0.4

Nelson Carlos Ferreira

BRA

Manaus (2º)

1995

TJ

17.21

Anísio Souza Silva

BRA

Lima

1993

SP

20.14

Gert Weil

CHI

Santiago de Chile

1985

DT

59.46

Ramón Jiménez Gaona

PAR

Lima

1993

HT

73.95

Juan Ignacio Cerra

ARG

Manaus

2001

JT

78.89A

Nery Kennedy

PAR

Bogotá

1999

Decathlon

7564

Édson Luques Bindilatti

BRA

Manaus

2001

11.13/-0.6 6.96/-0.9 12.46 
2.08 47.85 15.18/0.0 37.94 
4.60 44.24 4:28.37

4x100m

38.46A

Brazil

Bogotá

1999

Raphael de Oliveira, 
Claudinei da Silva, 
Édson Ribeiro, 
André da Silva

4x400m

3:02.09A

Brazil

Bogotá

1999

Eronilde de Araújo, 
Anderson J. dos Santos, 
Inácio Leão, 
Cleverson da Silva

20.000m W

1:23:06.8

Héctor Moreno

COL

Mar del Plata

1997

Women

100m

11.17A/1.3

Lucimar Aparecida de Moura

BRA

Bogotá (heats)

1999

11.17A/0.3

Lucimar Aparecida de Moura

BRA

Bogotá (final)

1999

200m

22.60A/1.6

Lucimar Aparecida de Moura

BRA

Bogotá

1999

400m

51.56

Maria Magnólia Figueirêdo

BRA

Manaus

1991

800m

2:00.04

Luciana de Paula Mendes

BRA

Manaus

1991

1500m

4:19.18

Rita de Cássia Santos de Jesus

BRA

Manaus

1991

5000m

15:48.82

Stella Castro

COL

Mar del Plata

1997

10000m

33:24.07

Stella Castro

COL

Mar del Plata

1997

100mh

12.71/0.1

Maurren Higa Maggi

BRA

Manaus

2001

400mh

57.16

Liliana Chalá

ECU

Manaus

1991

HJ

1.89

Orlane Maria Lima dos Santos

BRA

Manaus

1991

1.89

Solange Witteveen

ARG

Mar del Plata

1997

PV

4.30A

Alejandra García

ARG

Bogotá

1999

LJ

7.26/1.8

Maurren Higa Maggi

BRA

Bogotá

1999

TJ

13.91/1.3

Andrea Ávila

ARG

Lima

1993

SP

19.02A

Elisângela Maria Adriano

BRA

Bogotá

1999

DT

60.27A

Elisângela Maria Adriano

BRA

Bogotá

1999

HT

60.83

Karina Moya

ARG

Manaus

2001

JT

58.81A

Sabina Moya

COL

Bogotá

1991

Heptathlon

5741A

Euzinete Reis

BRA

Bogotá

1999

13.97/0.0 1.72 12.47 
24.40/1.9 6.09/-0.4 
41.32 2:31.49

4x100m

44.12A

Colombia

Bogotá

1999

Norfalia Carabalí, 
Patricia Rodríguez, 
Felipa Palacios, 
Mirtha Brock

4x400m

3:32.43

Brazil

Manaus

2001

Maria Laura Almirão, 
Maria Magnólia Figueirêdo, 
Lucimar Teodoro, 
Luciana Mendes