Athletics at the VIII Pan American Games
Dates	7–14 July
Host city	San Juan, Puerto Rico
Venue	Estadio Sixto Escobar
Events	39
Participation	380 athletes from 30 nations
← Mexico City 1975 Caracas 1983 → 1979 Pan American Games

Athletics competitions at the 1979 Pan American Games in San Juan were held from July 7 to 14^[1] at the Estadio Sixto Escobar.^[2]

Medalists

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: +1.5 m/s) details	Silvio Leonard  Cuba	10.13	Harvey Glance  United States	10.19	Emmit King  United States	10.30
200 metres (wind: +3.9 m/s) details	Silvio Leonard  Cuba	20.37	James Gilkes  Guyana	20.46	Don Coleman  United States	20.56
400 metres details	Tony Darden  United States	45.11	Alberto Juantorena  Cuba	45.24	Willie Smith  United States	45.3
800 metres details	James Robinson  United States	1:46.3 GR	Alberto Juantorena  Cuba	1:46.4	Agberto Guimarães  Brazil	1:46.8
1500 metres details	Don Paige  United States	3:40.4 GR	Todd Harbour  United States	3:41.5	Agberto Guimarães  Brazil	3:41.5
5000 metres details	Matt Centrowitz  United States	14:01.0	Herb Lindsay  United States	14:04.1	Rodolfo Gómez  Mexico	14:05.0
10,000 metres details	Rodolfo Gómez  Mexico	29:02.4	Enrique Aquino  Mexico	29:03.9	Frank Shorter  United States	29:06.4
110 metres hurdles (wind: +2.0 m/s) details	Renaldo Nehemiah  United States	13.20 GR	Alejandro Casañas  Cuba	13.46	Charles Foster  United States	13.56
400 metres hurdles details	James Walker  United States	49.66	Antônio Dias Ferreira  Brazil	50.85	Frank Montiéh  Cuba	51.30
3000 metres steeplechase details	Henry Marsh  United States	8:43.6	William McCullough  United States	8:44.7	Demetrio Cabanillos  Mexico	8:52.4
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States Mike Roberson Harvey Glance Cliff Wiley Steve Riddick	38.85	Cuba Osvaldo Lara Alejandro Casañas Silvio Leonard Juan Saborit	39.14	Brazil Milton de Castro Nelson dos Santos Rui da Silva Altevir de Araújo	39.44
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States James Walker Herman Frazier Maurice Peoples Tony Darden	3:03.8	Jamaica Ian Stapleton Floyd Brown Bert Cameron Colin Bradford	3:04.7	Cuba Frank Montiéh Carlos Álvarez Alberto Juantorena Pedro Tanis	3:06.3
Marathon details	Radamés González  Cuba	2:24:09	Luis Barbosa  Colombia	2:24:44	Rich Hughson  Canada	2:25:34
20 kilometres walk details	Daniel Bautista  Mexico	1:28:15 GR	Neal Pyke  United States	1:30:17	Todd Scully  United States	1:32:30
50 kilometres walk details	Raúl González  Mexico	4:05:17 GR	Martín Bermúdez  Mexico	4:11:13	Marco Evoniuk  United States	4:24:20
High jump details	Franklin Jacobs  United States	2.26 GR	Benn Fields  United States	2.19	Milton Ottey  Canada	2.19
Pole vault details	Bruce Simpson  Canada	5.15	Greg Woepse  United States	5.05	Brian Morrissette  Virgin Islands	4.85
Long jump details	João Carlos de Oliveira  Brazil	8.18	David Giralt  Cuba	8.15	Carl Lewis  United States	8.13
Triple jump details	João Carlos de Oliveira  Brazil	17.27	Willie Banks  United States	16.88	James Butts  United States	16.69
Shot put details	Dave Laut  United States	20.22 GR	Bishop Dolegiewicz  Canada	19.67	Bruno Pauletto  Canada	19.61
Discus throw details	Mac Wilkins  United States	63.30	Bradley Cooper  Bahamas	62.16 GR	Luis Delís  Cuba	61.70
Hammer throw details	Scott Neilson  Canada	69.64 GR	Armando Orozco  Cuba	68.48	Genovevo Morejón  Cuba	67.66
Javelin throw details	Duncan Atwood  United States	84.16 GR	Antonio González  Cuba	84.12	Raúl Pupo  Cuba	81.96
Decathlon details	Bobby Coffman  United States	8078 GR	Tito Steiner  Argentina	7638	Zenon Smiechowski  Canada	7337

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: +0.9 m/s) details	Evelyn Ashford  United States	11.07	Brenda Morehead  United States	11.11	Angella Taylor  Canada	11.36
200 metres (wind: +2.2 m/s) details	Evelyn Ashford  United States	22.24	Angella Taylor  Canada	22.74	Merlene Ottey  Jamaica	22.79
400 metres details	Sharon Dabney  United States	51.81	June Griffith  Guyana	51.81	Patricia Jackson  United States	52.32
800 metres details	Essie Kelley  United States	2:01.2 GR	Julie Brown  United States	2:01.2	Aurelia Pentón  Cuba	2:02.1
1500 metres details	Mary Decker  United States	4:05.7 GR	Julie Brown  United States	4:06.4	Penny Werthner  Canada	4:14.8
3000 metres details	Jan Merrill  United States	8:53.6 GR	Julie Brown  United States	8:59.9	Geri Fitch  Canada	9:35.7
100 metres hurdles (wind: +3.9 m/s) details	Deby LaPlante  United States	12.90	Sharon Lane  Canada	13.56	Grisel Machado  Cuba	13.60
4 × 100 metres relay details	United States Valerie Brisco Karen Hawkins Chandra Cheeseborough Brenda Morehead	43.30	Jamaica Lelieth Hodges Rosie Allwood Carmetta Drummond Merlene Ottey	44.18	Cuba Marta Zulueta Silvia Chivás Isabel Taylor Eloína Echevarría	46.26
4 × 400 metres relay details	United States Sharon Dabney Patricia Jackson Rosalyn Bryant Essie Kelley	3:29.4 GR	Cuba Ana Fidelia Quirot Nery McKeen Ana Luisa Guibert Aurelia Pentón	3:36.3a	Canada Micheline Racette Marita Payne Jeanette Wood Anne Mackie-Morelli	3:37.6a
High jump details	Louise Ritter  United States	1.93 GR	Pam Spencer  United States	1.87	Debbie Brill  Canada	1.85
Long jump details	Kathy McMillan  United States	6.46	Ana Alexander  Cuba	6.31	Eloína Echevarría  Cuba	6.27
Shot put details	María Elena Sarría  Cuba	18.81 GR	Maren Seidler  United States	18.57	Carmen Ionesco  Canada	16.50
Discus throw details	Carmen Romero  Cuba	60.58 GR	María Cristina Betancourt  Cuba	60.44	Carmen Ionesco  Canada	57.14
Javelin throw details	María Caridad Colón  Cuba	62.30 GR	Lynn Cannon  United States	56.18	Cathy Sulinski  United States	55.82
Pentathlon details	Diane Konihowski  Canada	4605	Jodi Anderson  United States	4434	Jill Ross  Canada	4112

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	United States	25	16	11	52
2	Cuba	6	10	9	25
3	Canada	3	3	12	18
4	Mexico	3	2	2	7
5	Brazil	2	1	3	6
6	Jamaica	0	2	1	3
7	Guyana	0	2	0	2
8	Argentina	0	1	0	1
	Bahamas	0	1	0	1
	Colombia	0	1	0	1
11	Virgin Islands	0	0	1	1
Totals (11 entries)		39	39	39	117

Participating nations