The athletics competition in the 1986 Central American and Caribbean Games were held in Santiago de los Caballeros, Dominican Republic.

Medal summary

Men's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Andrés Simón  Cuba	10.29	Juan Núñez  Dominican Republic	10.38	Ray Stewart  Jamaica	10.48
200 metres	Leandro Peñalver  Cuba	20.70	Juan Núñez  Dominican Republic	20.79	Leroy Reid  Jamaica	20.9
400 metres	Félix Stevens  Cuba	44.98	Ian Morris  Trinidad and Tobago	45.02	Elvis Forde  Barbados	45.65
800 metres	Oslen Barr  Guyana	1:49.42	William Wuycke  Venezuela	1:49.45	Ángel Osoria  Cuba	1:50.35
1500 metres	Jacinto Navarrete  Colombia	3:43.72	Germán Beltrán  Venezuela	3:43.99	Félix Mesa  Cuba	3:45.50
5000 metres	Mauricio González  Mexico	14:11.73	Marcos Barreto  Mexico	14:12.73	Juan Jesús Linares  Cuba	14:13.76
10,000 metres	Francisco Pacheco  Mexico	29:39.56	José Alcalá  Mexico	30:05.35	Eduardo Maldonado  Puerto Rico	30:29.39
Marathon	Jesús Amariles  Colombia	02:23:00	Radamés González  Cuba	02:25:54	Dieudonné Lamothe  Haiti	02:32:11
110 metres hurdles	Ángel Bueno  Cuba	13.86	Juan Saborit  Cuba	13.91	Ernesto Torres  Puerto Rico	14.10
400 metres hurdles	Winthrop Graham  Jamaica	50.03	David Charlton  Bahamas	50.14	Jesús Aguilasocho  Mexico	50.48
3000 metre steeplechase	Juan Ramón Conde  Cuba	8:42.38	Juan Jesús Linares  Cuba	8:46.11	Rafael Colmenares  Venezuela	8:52.83
4 × 100 metres relay	Cuba Osvaldo Lara Leandro Peñalver Sergio Querol Andrés Simón	38.74	Jamaica Gregory Meghoo Andrew Smith Raymond Stewart Leroy Reid	38.96	Dominican Republic José Méndez Gerardo Suero Fernando Reynoso Juan Núñez	39.56
4 × 400 metres relay	Cuba Leandro Peñalver Agustín Pavó Jorge Valentín Félix Stevens	3:02.41	Trinidad and Tobago Ali St. Louis Ian Morris Michael Paul Carlyle Bernard	3:04.57	Barbados Henriko Atkins David Carter Ezra Catwell Elvis Forde	3:06.88
20 kilometre road walk	Ernesto Canto  Mexico	1:26:25	Martín Bermúdez  Mexico	1:27:23	Héctor Moreno  Colombia	1:28:41
50 kilometre road walk	Martín Bermúdez  Mexico	4:04:47	Félix Gómez  Mexico	4:07:20	Mauricio Cortés  Colombia	4:26:27
High jump	Francisco Centelles  Cuba	2.22	Bárbaro Díaz  Cuba Alfredo Mejía  Dominican Republic	2.20
Pole vault	Rubén Camino  Cuba	5.20	José Echevarría  Cuba	5.00	Efram Meléndez  Puerto Rico	4.90
Long jump	Jaime Jefferson  Cuba	8.34	Elmer Williams  Puerto Rico	7.81	Ubaldo Duany  Cuba	7.57
Triple jump	Lázaro Betancourt  Cuba	16.83	Frank Rutherford  Bahamas	16.67	Norbert Elliott  Bahamas	16.40
Shot put	Paul Ruiz  Cuba	19.01	Marciso Boué  Cuba	18.59	Hubert Maingot  Trinidad and Tobago	16.99
Discus throw	Luis Delís  Cuba	63.16	Juan Martínez  Cuba	62.30	Brad Cooper  Bahamas	61.40
Hammer throw	Vicente Sánchez  Cuba	68.04	Eladio Hernández  Cuba	64.08	David Castrillón  Colombia	63.68
Javelin throw	Ramón González  Cuba	77.32	Juan de la Garza  Mexico	74.28	Máximo Driggs  Cuba	74.06
Decathlon	Ernesto Betancourt  Cuba	7333	Jorge Caraballo  Cuba	7079	Ron McPhee  Bahamas	6773

Women's events

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Pauline Davis-Thompson  Bahamas	11.51	Camille Coates  Jamaica	11.69	Amparo Caicedo  Colombia	11.85
200 metres	Pauline Davis-Thompson  Bahamas	23.06	Camille Coates  Jamaica	23.44	Amparo Caicedo  Colombia	23.52
400 metres	Ana Fidelia Quirot  Cuba	51.01	Norfalia Carabalí  Colombia	52.46	Cathy Rattray  Jamaica	52.67
800 metres	Ana Fidelia Quirot  Cuba	1:59.00	Angelita Lind  Puerto Rico	2:02.12	Imelda González  Mexico	2:02.26
1500 metres	Angelita Lind  Puerto Rico	4:18.67	Imelda González  Mexico	4:19.58	Nery McKeen  Cuba	4:23.34
3000 metres	Fabiola Rueda  Colombia	9:30.25	Sergia Martínez  Cuba	9:36.84	Santa Velázquez  Mexico	9:42.36
10,000 metres	Genoveva Domínguez  Mexico	36:24.39	Maricela Hurtado  Mexico	36:29.12	Maribel Durruty  Cuba	38:20.27
Marathon	Naidi Nazario  Puerto Rico	2:55:44	Maribel Durruty  Cuba	3:08:57	Aida Torres  Puerto Rico	3:10:19
100 metres hurdles	Odalys Adams  Cuba	13.50	Grisel Machado  Cuba	13.56	Sandra Taváres  Mexico	13.86
400 metres hurdles	Flora Hyacinth  U.S. Virgin Islands	57.55	Tania Fernández  Cuba	57.6	Alma Vázquez  Mexico	59.05
4 × 100 metres relay	Cuba Idania Pino Luisa Ferrer Susana Armenteros María Zamora	44.55	Bahamas Carmel Major Pauline Davis Deborah Greene Shonel Ferguson	45.49	Mexico Guadalupe García Alma Vázquez Alejandra Flores Sandra Tavares	45.58
4 × 400 metres relay	Cuba Ester Petitón Odalys Hernández Nery McKeen Ana Fidelia Quirot	3:33.60	Puerto Rico Virgen Fontánez Roxanne Oliver Mercedes Ríos Angelita Lind	3:41.32	Dominican Republic María Acevedo Ana Peña Virginia Cruz Glennis Reynoso	3:47.84
10,000 metre track walk	María Colín  Mexico	50:43.62	Graciela Mendoza  Mexico	51:56.62	Margarita Morales  Cuba	55:00.93
High jump	Silvia Costa  Cuba	1.96	Cristina Fink  Mexico	1.81	Laura Agront  Puerto Rico	1.79
Long jump	Eloína Echevarría  Cuba	6.61	Shonel Ferguson  Bahamas	6.43	Flora Hyacinth  U.S. Virgin Islands	6.36
Shot put	Marcelina Rodríguez  Cuba	17.22	Rosa Fernández  Cuba	17.17	María Isabel Urrutia  Colombia	14.48
Discus throw	Hilda Ramos  Cuba	63.44	Maritza Martén  Cuba	63.24	María Isabel Urrutia  Colombia	50.68
Javelin throw	María Caridad Colón  Cuba	67.00	Ivonne Leal  Cuba	56.56	María González  Puerto Rico	54.38
Heptathlon	Caridad Balcindes  Cuba	5313	Leyda Castro  Dominican Republic	5025	Irina Ambulo  Panama	4997 (NR)

Medal table

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Cuba (CUB)	27	16	8	51
2	Mexico (MEX)	6	9	6	21
3	Colombia (COL)	3	1	7	11
4	Bahamas (BAH)	2	4	3	9
5	Puerto Rico (PUR)	2	3	6	11
6	Jamaica (JAM)	1	3	3	7
7	U.S. Virgin Islands (VIR)	1	0	1	2
8	Guyana (GUY)	1	0	0	1
9	Dominican Republic (DOM)	0	4	2	6
10	Trinidad and Tobago (TTO)	0	2	1	3
	Venezuela (VEN)	0	2	1	3
12	Barbados (BAR)	0	0	2	2
13	Haiti (HAI)	0	0	1	1
	Panama (PAN)	0	0	1	1
Totals (14 entries)		43	44	42	129