Athletics at the 1978 Southern Cross Games

Athletics events at the 1978 Southern Cross Games were held at the Estadio Olímpico Hernando Siles in La Paz, Bolivia in November.^[1] The stadium was one of the first in South America equipped with a synthetic track. A total of 35 events were contested, 22 by men and 13 by women.

Athletics at the I Southern Cross Games
Hernando Siles Stadium, the national stadium of Bolivia located in the Miraflores borough of La Paz
Dates	November
Host city	La Paz, Bolivia
Venue	Estadio Olímpico Hernando Siles
Level	Senior
Events	35 (22 men, 13 women)
Participation	7 nations
1982 Santa Fe → 1978 Southern Cross Games

Best performances were by Luis Schneider from Chile winning four gold medals (100m, 200m, 4x100m relay, 4x400m relay),^[2] by native Johnny Pérez from Bolivia winning three gold medals (1500 m, 5000 m, and 3000 m steeplechase), by Ivonne Neddermann from Argentina winning two gold (long jump, 4×100 m relay), two silver (100 m hurdles, pentathlon) and one bronze medal (shot put), and finally by Nancy Vallecilla from Ecuador winning two gold (100 m hurdles, pentathlon), one silver (400 m), and one bronze medal (long jump). She was awarded the unofficial title of "Queen of the Games" (Spanish: Reina de los Juegos).^[3]

Medal summary

Medal winners were published in a book written by Argentinian journalist Ernesto Rodríguez III with support of the Argentine Olympic Committee (Spanish: Comité Olímpico Argentino) under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (Spanish: Ministerio de Educación de la Nación) in collaboration with the Office of Sports (Spanish: Secretaría de Deporte de la Nación).^[3] Eduardo Biscayart supplied the list of winners and their results.^[4] All results are marked as "affected by altitude" (A), because the stadium in La Paz is situated 3,650 metres above sea level.

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Luis Schneider  Chile	10.70 A	José Luis Elías  Peru	10.77 A	Gustavo Dubarbier  Argentina	10.78 A
200 metres	Luis Schneider  Chile	21.4 A	Ricardo Donda  Argentina	21.5 A	José Luis Elías  Peru	21.6 A
400 metres	Patricio Valenzuela  Chile	48.31 A	Felipe Mascaró  Chile	49.08 A	Roberto Prado  Bolivia	49.12 A
800 metres	Omar Amdematten  Argentina	1:56.68 A	Álvaro Cortez  Argentina	1:57.22 A	Felipe Mascaró  Chile	1:57.51 A
1500 metres	Johnny Pérez  Bolivia	4:11.56 A	Pedro Foronda  Bolivia	4:12.72 A	Abel Godoy  Uruguay	4:14.09 A
5000 metres	Johnny Pérez  Bolivia	15:54.33 A	Luis Tipán  Ecuador	15:56.54 A	Lucio Guachalla  Bolivia	16:18.14 A
10,000 metres	Luis Tipán  Ecuador	33:28.14 A	Lucio Guachalla  Bolivia	34:11.62 A	Rufino Chávez  Bolivia	34:30.27 A
110 m hurdles	Alfredo Piza  Chile	14.64 A	Rodolfo Iturraspe  Argentina	15.04 A	Francisco Fuentes  Chile	15.42 A
400 m hurdles	Alfredo Piza  Chile	53.26 A	Rodolfo Iturraspe  Argentina	54.53 A	Guillermo Gago  Argentina	56.08 A
3000 m steeplechase	Johnny Pérez  Bolivia	9:53.08 A	Luis Tipán  Ecuador	10:07.39 A	Norberto Limonta  Argentina	10:34.24 A
4 × 100 metres relay	Chile Patricio Valenzuela Luis Alberto Schneider Francisco Pichott Alejandro Kapsch	40.35 A	Jorge Ullanque José Torrico Roberto Prado Ernesto Roca  Bolivia	40.91 A	Daniel Díaz Antuña Ricardo Donda Angel Gagliano Eduardo Labalta  Argentina	41.05 A
4 × 400 metres relay	Chile Patricio Valenzuela Luis Schneider Alfredo Piza Felipe Mascaró	3:18.48 A	Daniel Díaz Antuña Guillermo Gago Angel Gagliano Rodolfo Iturraspe  Argentina	3:18.73 A	Roberto Prado Edgar Aguayo Freddy Bustamante Freddy Torrico  Bolivia	3:18.78 A
20 kilometres walk	Oswaldo Morejón  Bolivia	1:56:13 A	Esteban Quelale  Bolivia	1:56.49 A	Víctor Sánchez  Paraguay	2:08.05 A
High jump	Daniel Mamet  Argentina	2.18 A	Luis Arbulú  Peru	2.05 A	Víctor Migliaro  Chile	2.00 A
Pole vault	Roberto Steinmetz  Argentina	4.60 A	Alejandro Jadresic  Chile	4.20 A	Andrés Vicuña  Chile	4.00 A
Long jump	Francisco Pichot  Chile	7.47 A	Alex Kapch  Chile	7.46 A	Ronald Raborg  Peru	7.25 A
Triple jump	Francisco Pichot  Chile	16.27 A	Angel Gagliano  Argentina	15.66 A	Óscar Aguirre  Bolivia	13.47 A
Shot put	José Alberto Vallejo  Argentina	14.46 A	Héctor Rivero  Argentina	14.11 A	Miro Ronac  Peru	11.63 A
Discus throw	Héctor Rivero  Argentina	47.10 A	José Alberto Vallejo  Argentina	46.76 A	Eduardo Vieira  Chile	43.68 A
Hammer throw	José Alberto Vallejo  Argentina	63.90 A	Daniel Gómez  Argentina	62.38 A	Miro Ronac  Peru	33.26 A
Javelin throw	Angel Garmendia  Argentina	70.70 A	Miro Ronac  Peru	60.04 A
Decathlon	Roberto Steinmetz  Argentina	6624 A	Alfredo Silva  Chile	6597 A

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Beatriz Allocco  Argentina	11.73 A	Carmela Bolívar  Peru	11.83 A	Isabel Alemán  Bolivia	12.06 A
200 metres	Beatriz Allocco  Argentina	22.94 A	Carmela Bolívar  Peru	23.55 A	Isabel Alemán  Bolivia	24.57 A
400 metres	Alejandra Ramos  Chile	56.68 A	Nancy Vallecilla  Ecuador	59.05 A	Blanca Ibáñez  Bolivia	59.17 A
800 metres	Ana María Nielsen  Argentina	2:15.85 A	Mery Rojas  Bolivia	2:19.03 A	Laura Méndez  Ecuador	2:20.73 A
1500 metres	Ana María Nielsen  Argentina	4:57.12 A	Laura Méndez  Ecuador	5:08.58 A	Trinidad Guerra  Chile	5:11.7 A
100 m hurdles	Nancy Vallecilla  Ecuador	13.80 A	Ivonne Neddermann  Argentina	14.34 A	Emilia Dyrzka  Argentina	14.74 A
4 × 100 metres relay	Argentina Ivonne Neddermann Emilia Dyrzka Araceli Bruschini Beatriz Allocco	46.06 A	Bolivia CarIa Guissini Blanca Ibáñez Martha Novillo Isabel Alemán	46.94 A
High jump	Elizabeth Huber  Chile	1.75 A	Laura Ragas  Argentina	1.65 A	Ximena Mesa  Chile	1.65 A
Long jump	Ivonne Neddermann  Argentina	6.05 A	Ximena Mesa  Chile	5.97 A	Nancy Vallecilla  Ecuador	5.90 A
Shot put	Patricia Weber  Argentina	12.91 A	Lorena Prado  Chile	12.49 A	Ivonne Neddermann  Argentina	12.10 A
Discus throw	Lucy Ascune  Uruguay	39.72 A	Lorena Prado  Chile	38.12 A	Elizabeth Garnica  Bolivia	31.02 A
Javelin throw	Ana María Campillay  Argentina	46.72 A	Elizabeth Guernica  Bolivia	36.78 A	Elizabeth Huber  Chile	31.18 A
Pentathlon	Nancy Vallecilla  Ecuador	3798 A	Ivonne Neddermann  Argentina	3625 A	Ariana Salas  Chile	3103 A

Medal table (unofficial)

  *   Host nation (Bolivia)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina (ARG)	16	12	6	34
2	Chile (CHI)	11	7	9	27
3	Bolivia (BOL)*	4	7	9	20
4	Ecuador (ECU)	3	4	2	9
5	Uruguay (URU)	1	0	1	2
6	Peru (PER)	0	5	4	9
7	Paraguay (PAR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (7 entries)		35	35	32	102