The 1961 South American Championships in Athletics were held in Lima, Peru, between 20 and 28 May.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Arquímedes Herrera  Venezuela	10.6	Horacio Esteves  Venezuela	10.6	José Telles da Conceição  Brazil	10.7
200 metres	Horacio Esteves  Venezuela	21.3	Arquímedes Herrera  Venezuela	21.6	Luis Vienna  Argentina	21.8
400 metres	Anubes da Silva  Brazil	48.8	Juan Carlos Dyrzka  Argentina	49.3	Eulogio Gomes  Peru	50.0
800 metres	Ramón Sandoval  Chile	1:51.2	José Neira  Colombia	1:52.6	Eduardo Balducci  Argentina	1:53.3
1500 metres	Ramón Sandoval  Chile	3:51.2	Osvaldo Suárez  Argentina	3:53.5	Eduardo Balducci  Argentina	3:54.6
5000 metres	Osvaldo Suárez  Argentina	14:54.7	Luis Sandoval  Argentina	14:55.5	Alberto Ríos  Argentina	15:02.6
10,000 metres	Osvaldo Suárez  Argentina	30:18.1	Luis Sandoval  Argentina	31:13.9	Luis Campusano  Chile	31:27.3
Marathon	Juan Silva  Chile	2:39:36 CR	Ricardo Vidal  Chile	2:41:16	Armando Pino  Argentina	2:42:21
3000 metres steeplechase	Sebastião Mendes  Brazil	9:14.8	Domingo Amaisón  Argentina	9:20.6	Alberto Ríos  Argentina	9:23.4
110 metres hurdles	Carlos Mossa  Brazil	14.5 =CR	José Telles da Conceição  Brazil	14.7	Teófilo Davis Bell  Venezuela	15.0
400 metres hurdles	Juan Carlos Dyrzka  Argentina	52.3	Anubes da Silva  Brazil	52.8	Ulisses dos Santos  Brazil	54.0
4 × 100 metres relay	Venezuela Clive Bonas Horacio Esteves Arquímedes Herrera Emilio Romero	41.0	Brazil Affonso da Silva Jorge de Barros Anubes da Silva José da Conceição	41.5	Argentina Luis Vienna Juan Stocker Roberto Ferrairo Guillermo Bahler	42.2
4 × 400 metres relay	Venezuela Rafael Romero Emilio Romero Horacio Esteves Hortensio Fucil	3:16.0	Argentina Raúl Zabala Luis Vienna Juan Stocker Juan Carlos Dyrzka	3:16.9	Brazil Ulisses dos Santos Anubes da Silva Peter Ostermaier Carlos Alberto Ferreira	3:18.1
High jump	Eugenio Velasco  Chile	1.95	Eleuterio Fassi  Argentina	1.95	Horacio Martínez  Argentina	1.95
Pole vault	Marcelo de Souza  Brazil	3.90	Tomatsu Nishida  Brazil	3.90	Brígido Iriarte  Venezuela	3.80
Long jump	Juan Muñoz  Venezuela	7.13	Newton de Castro  Brazil	7.06	Fermín Donazar  Uruguay	6.92
Triple jump	Asnoldo Devonish  Venezuela	14.68	Sylvio Moreira  Brazil	14.52	Reinaldo de Oliveira  Brazil	14.42
Shot put	Enrique Helf  Argentina	15.86 CR	Luis Di Cursi  Argentina	15.69	Héctor Thomas  Venezuela	14.58
Discus throw	Günther Kruse  Argentina	48.57	Enrique Helf  Argentina	46.98	Héctor Menacho  Peru	46.97
Hammer throw	Daniel Cereali  Venezuela	52.55	Roberto Chapchap  Brazil	50.81	Carlos Marzo  Argentina	50.50
Javelin throw	Ricardo Héber  Argentina	64.25	Orlando Garrido  Brazil	63.56	Luis Zárate  Peru	61.40
Decathlon	Bernabé Souza  Brazil	5662	Tito Bracho  Venezuela	5587	Cleomenes da Cunha  Brazil	5502

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Edith Berg  Argentina	12.4	Nancy Correa  Chile	12.4	Marisol Massot  Chile	12.5
200 metres	Edith Berg  Argentina	25.7	Ada Brener  Argentina	25.8	Marta Buongiorno  Argentina	26.0
80 metres hurdles	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	11.5	Maria José de Lima  Brazil	11.9	Maria Teixeira  Brazil	12.0
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil Wanda dos Santos Maria Caldeira Laurette Godoy Erica da Silva	48.9	Argentina Edith Berg Marta Buongiorno Alicia Kaufmanas Ada Brener	48.9	Chile Aurora Bianchi Marisol Massot Doris Peter Nancy Correa	49.2
High jump	Aída dos Santos  Brazil	1.60 =CR	Nelly Gómez  Chile	1.55	Maria José de Lima  Brazil	1.50
Long jump	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	5.38	Ada Brener  Argentina	5.32	Alicia Kaufmanas  Argentina	5.21
Shot put	Ingeborg Pfüller  Argentina	12.41	Vera Trezoitko  Brazil	12.16	Pradelia Delgado  Chile	11.81
Discus throw	Ingeborg Pfüller  Argentina	41.92	Pradelia Delgado  Chile	39.78	Sumiko Yamakawa  Brazil	38.89
Javelin throw	Marlene Ahrens  Chile	42.85	Mercedes García  Venezuela	37.45	Vera Trezoitko  Brazil	37.29

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina (ARG)	10	12	11	33
2	Brazil (BRA)	9	10	9	28
3	Venezuela (VEN)	7	4	3	14
4	Chile (CHI)	5	4	4	13
5	Colombia (COL)	0	1	0	1
6	Peru (PER)	0	0	3	3
7	Uruguay (URU)	0	0	1	1
Totals (7 entries)		31	31	31	93