| Athletics at the VII South American Games | |
| Size: | 200px |
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| Host City: | Belém, Brazil  |
| Dates: | August 1–3 |
| Stadium: | Estádio Olímpico do Pará |
| Events: | 44 (22 men, 22 women) |
| Level: | Junior |
| Previous: | 1998 Cuenca |
| Next: | 2006 Buenos Aires |
| Games: | 2002 South American Games |
Athletics events at the 2002 South American Games were held at the Estádio Olímpico do Pará in Belém, Brazil, between August 1–3, 2002. For the first time, the tournament was restricted to junior athletes (U-20). The results were used to determine the medals awarded for this year's South American Junior Championships.
A total of 44 events were contested, 22 by men and 22 by women.
See main article: Athletics at the 2002 South American Games – Results.
Medal winners were published in a book written by Argentinian journalist Ernesto Rodríguez III with support of the Argentine Olympic Committee (Spanish: Comité Olímpico Argentino) under the auspices of the Ministry of Education (Spanish: Ministerio de Educación de la Nación) in collaboration with the Office of Sports (Spanish: Secretaría de Deporte de la Nación). Eduardo Biscayart supplied the list of winners and their results. Further results are published for the South American JuniorChampionships (Netherlands Antilles unregarded). Churandy Martina's results are collected elsewhere.
Results that are identical to the South American Junior Championships are shownelsewhere.Here, only those results are displayed that are different.
Further events with low participation (only 4 athletes from 3 countries) aremen's High jump and Javelin throw, and women's 3000 metres steeplechase, Shotput, and Heptathlon. However, there is no indication for awarding areduced number of medals.
Other results of the men's events are shownelsewhere.
| 100 metres | Churandy Martina | 10.42 | Bruno Pacheco | 10.50 | Eliezer De Almeida | 10.60 | |
| 200 metres | Bruno Pacheco | 20.54 | Churandy Martina | 20.81 | Jorge Sena | 21.18 | |
| 3000 metres steeplechase | Fernando Fernandes | 8:59.76 | Diego Moreno | 9:08.34 | Rodolfo Hass† | 9:20.70 |
†: No medal because of lack of minimum participation.
Other results of the women's events are shownelsewhere.
| Discus Throw | Roberta De Oliveira | 41.85 | Jennifer Dahlgren | 41.41 | Roberta Campos† | 40.70 | |
| Javelin Throw | María Do Carmo Alves | 45.31 | María Aparecida Cruz† | 44.31 | Adriana Benavente | 32.78 |
†: No medal because of lack of minimum participation.
Doping offences during the athletics events of the games are documented elsewhere.
An unofficial medal count for the athletics events at South American Games isshown below. This medal table differs from themedaltable published for the South American Under-23 Championships because ofdifferent number of nations, and the minimum participationnecessary to award a full set of medals as introduced by ODESUR. Affected are the medal counts for Brazil, Chile, and the Netherlands Antilles.