Athletics at the 1991 Mediterranean Games

Athletics at the XI Mediterranean Games
Athletics at the XI Mediterranean Games
	The host stadium later held the 2004 Olympic Games
Dates	6–11 July
Host city	Athens, Greece
Venue	Olympic Stadium
Events	38
Participation	15 nations
Records set	22 Games records
	← 1987 1993 ⊟ ; 1991 Mediterranean Games

At the 1991 Mediterranean Games, the athletics events were held at the Olympic Stadium in Athens, Greece. A total of 38 events were contested, of which 23 by male and 15 by female athletes. An exhibition heptathlon also took place, with Algeria's Yasmina Azzizi being the only athlete to compete. Several hundred athletes from fourteen Mediterranean nations took part in the competition.

Nine nations reached the medal table, with eight of them having an athlete top the podium. Italy was dominant, taking eleven gold medals and 38 overall. France was a clear second with nine golds from a haul of 25 medals. Algeria won the next highest number of golds (five), while Spain had the third largest overall medals with thirteen. Morocco also performed well (four golds and twelve in total) as did the host nation Greece (three golds and eleven overall).^[1] A total of 22 games records were broken in Athens – this was over half of the event programme and only five field event records were unbeaten by the end of the tournament.^[2]

Hassiba Boulmerka won a middle-distance double and went on to win the 1500 metres at the World Championships a month later. Fabienne Ficher was runner-up in the 200 metres but she added two golds to her tally through victories in the relays with the French team. Ezio Madonia won the men's 100 metres and anchored the Italian team to a second gold in the 4×100 metres relay. Italy's Agnese Maffeis broke the games record in the discus throw and also won the shot put silver medal. Paraskevi Patoulidou played a role in three of Greece's medals, taking the women's 100 m gold, silver in the 100 metres hurdles and a bronze in the 4×100 m relay.^[2]

Three former Olympic champions featured in Italy's team (Maurizio Damilano, Alessandro Andrei, and Gabriella Dorio). Damilano, who set a games record, won the men's 20 kilometres walk title at that year's world championships, while men's steeplechase winner Azzedine Brahmi became a world bronze medallist in his event. Brahim Boutayeb, the reigning Olympic champion in the 10,000 metres, took the world 5000 metres bronze after his games record performance in Athens.

The games proved a launching point for many less-established athletes: the 1992 Barcelona Olympics saw Mediterranean medallists Boulmerka, Patoulidou, Khalid Skah and Daniel Plaza win an Olympic gold medal. The 1500 m runner-up Rachid El Basir repeated his placing there. Women's 400 m hurdles winner Nezha Bidouane went on to become a two-time world champion and 1500 m champion Gennaro Di Napoli later had two wins at the IAAF World Indoor Championships.

Medal summary

Men

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: 0.5 m/s)	Ezio Madonia (ITA)	10.27	Yiannis Zisimides (CYP)	10.41	Cengiz Kavaklıoğlu (TUR)	10.44
200 metres (wind: -1.0 m/s)	Stefano Tilli (ITA)	20.73	Miguel Ángel Gómez (ESP)	20.76	Sandro Floris (ITA)	20.96
400 metres	Olivier Noirot (FRA)	45.41	Fabio Grossi (ITA)	45.93	Abdelali Kasbane (MAR)	45.9
800 metres	Réda Abdenouz (ALG)	1:47.62	Luis Javier González (ESP)	1:47.84	Tonino Viali (ITA)	1:47.86
1500 metres	Gennaro Di Napoli (ITA)	3:42.80	Rachid El Basir (MAR)	3:43.06	Zeki Öztürk (TUR)	3:43.22
5000 metres	Brahim Boutayeb (MAR)	13:29.64 GR	Khalid Skah (MAR)	13:30.00	Antonio Martins (FRA)	13:38.08
10,000 metres	Hammou Boutayeb (MAR)	28:24.19 GR	Francesco Bennici (ITA)	28:38.19	Khalid Boulami (MAR)	28:52.84
110 metres hurdles (wind: 0.7 m/s)	Dan Philibert (FRA)	13.56 GR	Carlos Sala (ESP)	13.64	Fausto Frigerio (ITA)	13.72
400 metres hurdles	Stéphane Caristan (FRA)	49.27 GR	Fabrizio Mori (ITA)	49.85	Mauro Maurizi (ITA)	50.05
3000 metres steeplechase	Azzedine Brahmi (ALG)	8:21.58	Alessandro Lambruschini (ITA)	8:22.95	Abdelaziz Sahere (MAR)	8:24.15
4×100 metres relay	Italy (ITA) Mario Longo Carlo Simionato Sandro Floris Ezio Madonia	39.12	Spain (ESP) Juan Trapero Enrique Talavera Miguel Ángel Gómez Luis Turón	39.39	France (FRA) Antoine Richard Éric Perrot Olivier Théophile Pascal Théophile	39.99
4×400 metres relay	Italy (ITA) Marco Vaccari Alessandro Aimar Fabio Grossi Andrea Nuti	3:03.20 GR	Yugoslavia (YUG) Dejan Jovković Nenad Đurović Ismail Mačev Slobodan Branković	3:03.74	Morocco (MAR) Abdelali Kasbane Ali Dahane Bouchaib Belkaid Benyounés Lahlou	3:03.75
Marathon	Salah Qoqaiche (MAR)	2:20:26	Gianluigi Curreli (ITA)	2:20:54	Christos Sotiropoulos (GRE)	2:24:54
20 km walk	Maurizio Damilano (ITA)	1:22:48 GR	Daniel Plaza (ESP)	1:23:51	Olegario Regidor (ESP)	1:26:45
High jump	Othmane Belfaa (ALG)	2.28 m GR	Luca Toso (ITA)	2.26 m	Fabrizio Borellini (ITA)	2.26 m
Pole vault	Philippe d'Encausse (FRA)	5.60 m GR	Jean-Marc Tailhardat (FRA)	5.60 m	Marco Andreini (ITA)	5.50 m
Long jump	Konstandinos Koukodimos (GRE)	8.26 m GR	Fausto Frigerio (ITA)	8.15 m (w)	Giovanni Evangelisti (ITA)	7.89 m
Triple jump	Marios Hadjiandreou (CYP)	17.13 m GR	Alex Norca (FRA)	16.74 m	Lotfi Khaïda (ALG)	16.64 m
Shot put	Alessandro Andrei (ITA)	19.38 m	Luciano Zerbini (ITA)	19.25 m	Luc Viudès (FRA)	19.05 m
Discus throw	Luciano Zerbini (ITA)	60.10 m	Marco Martino (ITA)	59.82 m	David Martinez (ESP)	59.16 m
Hammer throw	Raphaël Piolanti (FRA)	75.10 m GR	Enrico Sgrulletti (ITA)	74.78 m	Savvas Saritzoglou (GRE)	70.06 m
Javelin throw (new model)	Julián Sotelo (ESP)	76.04 m GR	Fabio De Gaspari (ITA)	73.10 m	Charlus Bertimon (FRA)	72.52 m
Decathlon	Saša Karan (YUG)	7771 pts GR	Alper Kasapoğlu (TUR)	7650 pts	Efthimios Andreoglou (GRE)	7513 pts

Women

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres (wind: 0.3 m/s)	Voula Patoulidou (GRE)	11.48	Maguy Nestoret (FRA)	11.50	Magali Simioneck (FRA)	11.53
200 metres (wind: 0.2 m/s)	Marisa Masullo (ITA)	23.21 GR	Fabienne Ficher (FRA)	23.40	Valérie Jean-Charles (FRA)	23.52
400 metres	Julia Merino (ESP)	51.88 GR	Véronique Poulain (FRA)	52.85	Francine Landre (FRA)	53.43
800 metres	Hassiba Boulmerka (ALG)	2:01.27	Frédérique Quentin (FRA)	2:01.51	Nadia Falvo (ITA)	2:02.58
1500 metres	Hassiba Boulmerka (ALG)	4:08.17	Irini Theodoridou (GRE)	4:10.30	Gabriella Dorio (ITA)	4:10.63
3000 metres	Roberta Brunet (ITA)	8:45.68 GR	Nadia Dandolo (ITA)	8:46.94	Amina Maanaoui (MAR)	9:22.94
100 metres hurdles (wind: -0.2 m/s)	Anne Piquereau (FRA)	12.88 GR	Voula Patoulidou (GRE)	12.96	María José Mardomingo (ESP)	13.34
400 metres hurdles	Nezha Bidouane (MAR)	55.13 GR	Irmgard Trojer (ITA)	55.42	Nadia Zatouani (MAR)	57.57
4×100 metres relay	France (FRA) Magali Simioneck Maguy Nestoret Fabienne Ficher Valérie Jean-Charles	43.66	Italy (ITA) Marisa Masullo Donatella Dal Bianco Daniela Ferrian Rossella Tarolo	43.67	Greece (GRE) Kanelidou Ekaterini Koffa Marina Vasarmidou Voula Patoulidou	44.77
4×400 metres relay	France (FRA) Elsa Devassoigne Véronique Poulain Francine Landre Fabienne Ficher	3:31.00 GR	Italy (ITA) Roberta Rabaioli Johanna Zuddas Barbara Martinelli Cosetta Campana	3:33.68	Spain (ESP) Idoia Granda Gregoria Ferrer Amaia Andrés Esther Lahoz	3:34.21
High jump	Isabelle Chevallier (FRA)	1.90 m	Niki Gavera (GRE)	1.87 m	Niki Bakoyianni (GRE)	1.87 m
Long jump	Tamara Malešev (YUG)	6.60 m GR	Valentina Uccheddu (ITA)	6.52 m	Isabel López (ESP)	6.14 m
Shot put	Margarita Ramos (ESP)	17.71 m	Agnese Maffeis (ITA)	17.46 m	Mara Rosolen (ITA)	15.95 m
Discus throw	Agnese Maffeis (ITA)	59.46 m GR	Isabelle Devaluez (FRA)	56.14 m	Agnès Teppe (FRA)	55.80 m
Javelin throw (old model)	Anna Verouli (GRE)	60.34 m	Nadine Auzeil (FRA)	54.82 m	Aysel Taş (TUR)	54.34 m
Heptathlon (exhibition event)	Yasmina Azzizi (ALG)	6114 pts GR	Only one participant

Medal table

* Host nation (Italy)

^† Excludes Yasmina Azzizi's gold in the heptathlon, as this was an exhibition event only.

Participation

Fifteen of the eighteen nations present at the 1991 edition of the games entered athletes into the athletics competition. Lebanon, Libya and Malta did not send any track and field athletes.^[1]