Athletics at the Islamic Games

The athletics competition at the 1980 Islamic Games was held at the İzmir Atatürk Stadium in İzmir, Turkey between 26 September and 6 October 1980. This was the second major athletics event to be staged at the stadium, following the athletics at the 1971 Mediterranean Games. A total of thirty athletics events were contested, twenty-one for men and nine for women. While the men's programme was well attended, the women's events attracted very few entries, with Turkish female track athletes composing the bulk of the competitors.[1] Women's athletics in the Arab world particularly was at an early stage of development – only a year earlier had women's events been introduced at the Arab Athletics Championships and the African Championships in Athletics been launched.[2][3]

I Islamic Games
The host stadium in 2012
Dates26 September to 6 October 1980
Host cityİzmir, Turkey
Venueİzmir Atatürk Stadium
Events30


The results of the competition were not of a high international standard, but this was a key purpose of the gathering, as it allowed Muslim nations not traditionally strong in track and field to engage with peers of a similar standard.[4] The host nation Turkey was easily the most dominant in the sport, winning fourteen of the thirty events on offer. Morocco was the next most successful nation, with five golds. Algeria performed well in the distance running events, taking three golds, and Saudi Arabia gave a similar performance in the sprints, also taking three golds. Ten nations made it to the medal table.[1]

Going into the competition, the most prominent athletes were Algeria's Rachid Habchaoui and Turkey's Mehmet Terzi, both of whom had won long-distance running medals at the 1979 Mediterranean Games.[5] Habchaoui took a long-distance track double in the 5000 metres and 10,000 metres, while Terzi was the marathon winner and 10,000 m runner-up. Olympic steeplechase finalist Lahcene Babaci was the winner of his event and, another Algerian, middle-distance running specialist Amar Brahmia was well established, having won multiple medals at the 1978 All-Africa Games.[6] However, it was the efforts of two young athletes who rose to prominence by winning their first major titles here that had the greatest impact on Islamic athletics. Brahmia was beaten in both the 800 metres and 1500 metres by twenty-one-year-old Saïd Aouita, who would later go on to win one of Morocco's first Olympic gold medals, alongside Nawal El Moutawakel, at the 1984 Summer Olympics.[7] Nineteen-year-old Ahmed Hamada Jassim of Bahrain was the other athlete to emerge internationally at this competition: after winning the 400 metres hurdles he went on to be one of Asia's foremost athletes in the event and was the champion at the 1986 Asian Games.[8]

Medal summary edit

Men edit

Event Gold Silver Bronze
100 metres   Omar Ghizlat (MAR) 10.75   Arim Jamian (MAS) 11.02   Sükrü Çaprazli (TUR) 11.03
200 metres   Abduljalil Othman Bakour (KSA) 21.95   Allah Taoufik (MAR) 22.24   Murat Akman (TUR) 22.31
400 metres   Hassan Abdulkarim (KSA) 48.79   Bachir Fellah (LBA) 49.45   Murat Akman (TUR) 50.03
800 metres   Saïd Aouita (MAR) 1:52.06   Amar Brahmia (ALG) 1:52.72   Sermet Timurlenk (TUR) 1:53.33
1500 metres   Saïd Aouita (MAR) 3:51.26   Amar Brahmia (ALG) 3:51.74   Sermet Timurlenk (TUR) 3:54.32
5000 metres   Rachid Habchaoui (ALG) 14:17.27   Bayram Sahin (TUR) 14:49.14   Mongi Mohamed Abdullah (LBA) 14:49.42
10,000 metres   Rachid Habchaoui (ALG) 29:32.4   Mehmet Terzi (TUR) 29:53.8   Mohamed Naoumi (MAR) 30:14.0
110 metres hurdles   Ahmed Chiboub (MAR) 14.65   Ilhan Agirbas (TUR) 14.74   Lee Wai Yin (MAS) 15.00
400 metres hurdles   Ahmed Hamada Jassim (BHR) 52.46   Javed Akhtar (PAK) 53.26   Ahmed Chiboub (MAR) 53.95
3000 metres steeplechase   Lahcene Babaci (ALG) 8:56.0   Yusuf Sögütlü (TUR) 9:30.2   Saad Hamada Mubarak (BHR) 9:40.4
4×100 metres relay   Saudi Arabia (KSA) 41.36   Turkey (TUR) 42.06   Bahrain (BHR) 42.17
4×400 metres relay   Turkey (TUR) 3:17.82   Bahrain (BHR) 3:20.04   Saudi Arabia (KSA) 3:24.46
Marathon   Mehmet Terzi (TUR) 2:26:02   Ahmet Altun (TUR) 2:28:35 Not awarded
High jump   Ekrem Özdamar (TUR) 2.10 m   Hamid Sahil (ALG) 2.05 m   Ho Yoon Wah (MAS) 2.05 m
Pole vault   Tayfun Aygün (TUR) 4.50 m   Mohamed Bensaad (ALG) 4.30 m   Rihan Ali Rihan Obeid (KSA) 4.20 m
Long jump   Mohamed Abdusalam Bishti (LBA) 7.11 m   Tayfun Demiralay (TUR) 6.97 m   Nasib Gul (PAK) 6.69 m
Triple jump   Temel Erbek (TUR) 15.31 m   Nasib Gul (PAK) 14.97 m   Mujibar Rahman Malik (BAN) 14.54 m
Shot put   Mohamed Fatihi (MAR) 16.66 m   Ali Mohammed Saad (BHR) 15.68 m   Tayfun Esmer (TUR) 14.68 m
Discus throw   Mohammed Majid (BHR) 44.88 m   Osman Nuri Karabiyik (TUR) 44.80 m   Milad Ahmed Hassan (LBA) 44.08 m
Hammer throw   Ugur Sel (TUR) 56.28 m   Abdellah Boubekeur (ALG) 54.90 m   Ghulam Noorani (PAK) 54.00 m
Javelin throw   Muhammad Munir (PAK) 71.36 m   Mohamed Karakhi (MAR) 65.58 m   Mesfer Al-Khani (KSA) 64.26 m

Women edit

Event Gold Silver Bronze
100 metres   Semra Aksu (TUR) 12.80 Not awarded Not awarded
200 metres   Esen Özgeren (TUR) 25.91 Not awarded Not awarded
800 metres   Nurten Kara (TUR) 2:16.14   Tülay Öztas (TUR) 2:18.64 Not awarded
1500 metres   Ülker Kutlu (TUR) 4:36.37 Not awarded Not awarded
3000 metres   Ülker Kutlu (TUR) 10:04.18 Not awarded Not awarded
100 metres hurdles   Semra Aksu (TUR) 14.75   Boon Ma Aroonaratna (MAS) 14.78 Not awarded
400 metres hurdles   Ayse Özkol (TUR) 65.9 Not awarded Not awarded
Long jump   Gül Teksoy (TUR) 5.35   Noreen Pereira (MAS) 5.32 Not awarded
Discus throw   Perican Bayer (TRNC) 35.44 Not awarded Not awarded

Medal table edit

  *   Host nation (Turkey)

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1  Turkey (TUR)*149629
2  Morocco (MAR)5229
3  Algeria (ALG)3508
4  Saudi Arabia (KSA)3036
5  Bahrain (BHR)2226
6  Pakistan (PAK)1225
7  Libya (LBA)1124
8  Northern Cyprus (TRNC)1001
9  Malaysia (MAS)0325
10  Bangladesh (BAN)0011
Totals (10 entries)30242074

References edit

  1. ^ a b Islamic Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
  2. ^ Pan Arab Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
  3. ^ African Championships. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
  4. ^ Lawton, John. The Islamic Games. Aramco World (January/February 1992, Volume 43, Number 1). Retrieved on 2015-01-30.
  5. ^ Mediterranean Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
  6. ^ All-Africa Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
  7. ^ Morocco Summer Sports. Olympics Sports Reference. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
  8. ^ Asian Games. GBR Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-01-31.
Medallists