The Brazilian team dominated the 49th edition of the South American Championships, which took at Lima&rsquo;s Videna Stadium on 12-14 June.In spite of the unfriendly weather &ndash; some rain and autumn temperatures &ndash; the oldest continental area championships in the world produced some fine performances.Brazil&rsquo;s J&uacute;lio C&eacute;sar de Oliveira, who showed tremendous potential more than a decade ago when winning the world youth title in 2003, took the javelin title with 81.22m, setting a championship record and improving the Brazilian record. His series was: 77.06m, 77.40m, 79.25m, 79.57m, 78.41m and 81.22m.The 29-year-old set the previous Brazilian record of 80.05m in 2009 and had thrown 80.29m earlier that year in an unsanctioned competition.The event was highly contested and displayed fine performances; Argentina&rsquo;s Braian Toledo, the 2010 Youth Olympic champion, was second with 79.34m and Colombia&rsquo;s Arley Ibarg&uuml;en was third with 75.47m.Argentina&rsquo;s Germ&aacute;n Chiaraviglio also displayed fine form, returning to the level of performances he had as a junior athlete. The 28-year old, who won world youth gold in 2003 and world junior gold in 2006, captured the pole vault title with 5.70m, one centimetre short of his personal best and national record set when winning the world junior title nine years ago.Chiaraviglio opened at 5.30m, which he cleared on his second attempt, then went over 5.50m on his first try and 5.70m after two attempts. He later had three misses at 5.80m. Brazil&rsquo;s World Championships finalist Augusto Dutra de Oliveira failed to clear his opening height of 5.50m.<h3>South American record for Arenas</h3>Colombia&rsquo;s Lorena Arenas, the 2012 world junior silver medallist, set a South American record in the 20,000m race walk with 1:31:02.25. Arenas won comfortably after her main opposition, Peruvian Kimberly Garc&iacute;a and Brazilian &Eacute;rica de Sena, were disqualified after the halfway point.Pleased with her title, Arenas said she hopes to improve her 20km road national record of 1:30:18. &ldquo;The girls have better performances than me on the road, but they always get in trouble at the track events,&rdquo; said Arenas. Another Colombian, Ingrid Hern&aacute;ndez, was second in 1:36:42.08.<h3>Uruguay&rsquo;s best performance since 1919</h3>Even with a small delegation, Uruguay posted its best performance in the event since 1919, at the inaugural edition of the championships when only three nations were competing.The Uruguayans, capped by the excellent Deborah Rodr&iacute;guez, won four events in total. The 22-year-old Rodr&iacute;guez set national records with her victories at 800m (2:01.46) and 400m hurdles (56.33, also championship record).Fellow 400m hurdler Andres Silva took the men&rsquo;s event with a season&rsquo;s best of 49.43, capturing his third South American crown.But the most unexpected gold medal won by a Uruguayan athlete came from Emiliano Lasa, who set a national record of 8.09m (1.9m/s) to win the long jump. Two-time world indoor champion Mauro Vin&iacute;cius da Silva finished third with 7.81m.Lima also brought five more championship records &ndash; beside the ones by J&uacute;lio de Oliveira, Arenas, and Rodr&iacute;guez at 400m hurdles.Ecuador&rsquo;s Byron Piedra won the 10,000m in 28:30.80, Brazil&rsquo;s Jucilene de Lima threw 60.16m to win the javelin and Colombia&rsquo;s Gerard Giraldo took the 3000m steeplechase in 8:29.53. Two days before winning the steeplechase, Colombia&rsquo;s Muriel Coneo set a championship record of 4:10.14 in the 1500m, while compatriot Evelys Aguilar won the heptathlon with 5906, breaking the championship and national records.In the men&rsquo;s events, other fine performances were achieved by Venezuela&rsquo;s Alberth Bravo at 400m (45.26), Colombia&rsquo;s Rafith Rodr&iacute;guez at 800m (1:46.48), Colombia&rsquo;s Mauricio Ortega in the discus (61.36m) and Argentina&rsquo;s Germ&aacute;n Lauro in the shot, who threw a season&rsquo;s best of 20.77m to win his sixth title in a row.The other top female performers included Peru&rsquo;s In&eacute;s Melchor in the 10,000m (32:28.87), Venezuela&rsquo;s Robeilys Peinado in the pole vault (4.35m), Yulimar Rojas in the triple jump (wind-assisted 14.14m and 14.05m), Rosa Rodr&iacute;guez in the hammer (71.77m), Brazilians Geisa Arcanjo in the shot (17.76m) and Andressa de Morais in the discus (61.15m) and Ecuador&rsquo;s Mar&iacute;a Balvina Pastu&ntilde;a in the 5000m, who set a national record of 15:49.33.As per the qualification system laid out by the IAAF, all South American champions &ndash; regardless of their winning marks &ndash; will be considered as having achieved the entry standard for the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015.Brazil topped the medals table with 11 gold, 15 silver and eight bronzes, ahead of Colombia (9, 6, 6) and Venezuela (8, 8, 6).Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF

The Brazilian team dominated the 49th edition of the South American Championships, which took at Lima’s Videna Stadium on 12-14 June.

Brazilians dominate South American Championships in Lima

Argentine shot putter German Lauro brought his country their second gold medal of the athletics competitions of the 10th edition of the ODESUR Games (South American Games) by winning his specialist event in Santiago de Chile with a Games record 20.70m on Saturday (15).Lauro, 29, from Trenque Lauquen has been one of the most consistent South American athletes at recent global events by placing at the final of the last two IAAF World Indoor Championships, the London 2012 Olympic Games and IAAF World Championships last summer.Coming from his sixth place in Sopot just over a week ago, Lauro won his second shot title at the Games, following his success in 2006, in dominant fashion with all four of his valid throws better than his nearest rival. A distant second was Brazil’s Darlan Romani with 19.96m.Lauro said one of his main targets for the season ahead is to try to improve his Area record of 21.26m, set last year in Doha.Another quality result in the Chilean capital came from the men’s 200m, where Brazil’s Aldemir da Silva captured victory in 20.32 (wind -1.0 metres-per-second), a personal best and Games record.&nbsp; The promising 21-year-old from Rio de Janeiro, a semifinalist at the 2012 Olympic Games, left Ecuador’s London finalist Alex Quinonez to settle for second with 20.66, while Venezuela’s Arturo Ramírez was third with 20.67.In the first event of the third of four days of competition, Colombia’s Eider Arevalo won the 20000m Race Walk in 1:22:11.1, which was also a Games record and track personal best as well as emulating the feat of his compatriot Sandra Arenas on the opening day.Arevalo, the 2012 IAAF World Junior Championships 10,000m gold medallist and also winner at the 2014 IAAF Race Walking Challenge meeting in Chihuahua, was always in the leading pack - which passed the halfway point in 41:53.6 – and he was comfortably at the front from 16 kilometres, with only his compatriot José Leonardo Montana for company, after Ecuador’s Andres Chocho had been disqualifiedThe Colombian pair then worked together before deciding to race the final lap. Montana’s time in second was 1:22:14.1, a personal best.Venezuela hat-trickVenezuela triumphed three times on Saturday. National record holder Eure Yanez won the men’s high jump with 2.21m, Nercely Soto claimed the victory at women’s 200m with 23.25 (wind -0.4 mps), and the women’s 4x100m team, with Soto on the anchor leg, took the gold with 45.08. Brazil, which usually dominates at this event, didn’t enter a team.The day was also a good one for Uruguay, as two of its athletes won the 400m hurdles races. Andres Silva, the 2003 IAAF World Youth Championships octathlon winner, took the gold in the men’s event with a Games record 49.57 while Deborah Rodriguez set a national record with her 56.60 clocking in the women’s event.Brazil, dominating the medal table with 10 victories to Colombia’s five, added four gold medals on Saturday. Besides da Silva’s victory at 200m, Keila Costa won the triple jump with 13.65m (wind -1.5 mps), the men’s 4x100m team set a Games record of 38.90 and Luiz Alberto de Araujo took the decathlon with 7733 points.Peru has collected three gold medals so far, and its third one came on Saturday through Inés Melchor at 5000m - her second after the 10,000m on Thursday - with another record time of 15:51.20.The 27-year-old from Arequipa has been displaying great form lately. Last November, Melchor also took the 5000m-10000m double at the Juegos Bolivarianos.Chile, the host nation, claimed its first victory of the Games when Karen Gallardo won the discus with her opening throw of 59.65m. Paraguay celebrated its first ODESUR women’s athletics gold medal ever when Ana Camila Pirelli took the heptathlon title with a Games record of 5669 points.Argentine Fiorella Chiappe, still only 18, was second with 5568, setting a national junior record. Chiappe, sixth at the 2013 World Youth Championships, had a fine second day setting personal bests at the long Jump and 800m and is one of South America’s best hopes for the 2014 World Junior Championships in Eugene, USA, this summer.Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF&nbsp;

Argentine shot putter German Lauro brought his country their second gold medal of the athletics competitions of the 10th edition of the ODESUR Games (South American Games) by winning his specialist event in Santiago de Chile with a Games record 20.70m on Saturday (15).

Lauro lights up third day of the ODESUR Games

Colombia’s Lorena Arenas produced the best result of the first day of competition at the ODESUR Games (South American Games) in the Chilean capital of Santiago on Thursday (13) by setting a South American 20,000m race walk record.Arenas, a 20-year-old from Calarca and winner of the junior women’s 10km race at the 2012 IAAF World Race Walking Cup, dominated the race from the fourth kilometre (18:57.8). After reaching half way in 46:30.9, Arenas started to build up a decisive gap over compatriot Sandra Galvis.The young Colombian, who placed 22nd at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow and had won the Chihuahua stop of the 2014 IAAF Race Walking Challenge, covered the second half of the race in 45:16.0, a clocking that would have even beaten the existing South American 10,000m race walk record of 45:29.6, held by Venezuela’s Milanggela Rosales.Nevertheless, Arenas’s winning time of 1:31:46.9 improved the previous 20,000m record of 1:32:09.4 set by compatriot Ingrid Hernandez at the 2011 South American Championships in Buenos Aires.“I felt very good since the beginning of the contest, although the sun was very strong and it was warm at the track,” said Arenas, who left Galvis in second place with a personal best of 1:34:04.4 and Brazilian Erica de Sena in third (1:36:37.3).“The race left me very satisfied. My goal is to be in even better shape at the upcoming Taicang World Cup, where my target is to walk under 1:30. However, I’m happy with today’s result. I was able to keep my pace and that brought me the record.”The initial day of competition in Santiago also delivered the champions of both 10,000m races. In the men’s event, Ecuador’s Bayron Piedra benefited from a comfortable pace (14:25.43 at 5000m), which enabled him to seal his 28:48.31 victory with a fast final 1000m (2:40.79).The 31-year-old broke the Games record that had stood since 1986 to compatriot Rolando Vera (28:53.90). Brazilian Giovani dos Santos was second, also with 28:53.90.Peruvian Ines Melchor took the victory in the women’s race, also setting a Games record with 33:10.06. The 27-year-old, the national record-holder for the 5000m, 10,000m and marathon, took command of the contest at the half-way point (16:57.59) and led a Peruvian 1-2, with Wilma Arizapana in second with 33:26.84.Three fouls by Braz da Silva in pole vaultWhat seemed to be a promising pole vault contest ended with a slight disappointment. Brazilian Augusto Dutra de Oliveira claimed the victory with 5.40m (the only height he attempted), beating Argentina’s German Chiaraviglio, the 2006 world junior champion, who managed 5.35m.Dutra de Oliveira was coming from placing seventh at the 2014 World Indoor Championships in Sopot (5.65m), where his compatriot Thiago Braz da Silva was fourth with 5.75m. However, in Santiago, Braz could not clear his initial height of 5.20m.In the remaining finals of the first day, Paraguay’s Victor Fatecha took the javelin gold medal with his first-round throw of 76.09m, winning his third consecutive title and becoming the only athlete to claim that honour.Venezuela’s Rosa Rodriguez also won with a first-round throw, taking the women’s hammer title with a Games record of 68.61m. And Brazilian Keila Costa claimed the long jump gold with 6.35m (0.5m/s).The 10th edition of the multisport games is taking place at Santiago de Chile’s National Stadium and will conclude on 16 March.Eduardo Biscayart for the IAAF

Colombia’s Lorena Arenas produced the best result of the first day of competition at the ODESUR Games (South American Games) on Thursday (13) by setting a South American 20,000m race walk record.

Brazilians dominate South American Championships in Lima

Lauro lights up third day of the ODESUR Games

Arenas sets South American record on first day of ODESUR Games