The 1949 South American Championships in Athletics were held in the Peruvian capital, Lima, between 16 and 24 April.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Gerardo Salazar  Peru	10.7	Aroldo da Silva  Brazil	10.7	Mario Fayos  Uruguay	10.8
200 metres	Mario Fayos  Uruguay	21.7	Fernando Lapuente  Argentina	22.2	Alberto Triulzi  Argentina	22.5
400 metres	Gustavo Ehlers  Chile	49.5	Rosalvo Ramos  Brazil	49.8	Antonio Pocovi  Argentina	50.0
800 metres	Hugo Ponce  Argentina	1:56.6	Nilo Riveros  Argentina	1:56.8	Agenor da Silva  Brazil	1:57.2
1500 metres	Hugo Nuttini  Chile	4:01.2	Melchor Palmeiro  Argentina	4:02.5	Oscar Gauharou  Argentina	4:03.3
3000 metres	Raúl Inostroza  Chile	8:49.2	Melchor Palmeiro  Argentina	8:50.3	Oscar Moreira  Uruguay	8:50.6
5000 metres	Ricardo Bralo  Argentina	15:02.8	Oscar Moreira  Uruguay	15:04.7	Raúl Inostroza  Chile	15:18.8
10,000 metres	Ricardo Bralo  Argentina	31:46.3	Pedro Caffa  Argentina	31:47.2	Oscar Moreira  Uruguay	31:48.0
20 kilometre race	Delfo Cabrera  Argentina	1:06:52	Oscar Moreira  Uruguay	1:07:02	Eusebio Guiñez  Argentina	1:09:11
110 metres hurdles	Alberto Triulzi  Argentina	14.5 CR	Manuel Aldunate  Chile	14.9	Wilson Carneiro  Brazil	14.9
400 metres hurdles	Hermenelindo Alberti  Argentina	54.7	Víctor Henríquez  Chile	55.4	Carlos Hey  Brazil	55.5
4 × 100 metres relay	Peru Gerardo Salazar Máximo Reyes Miguel León Pizzarro Santiago Ferrando	42.3	Argentina Gerardo Bönnhoff Fernando Lapuente Alberto Biedermann Adelio Marquez	42.3	Chile Alberto Labarthe José López Carlos Silva Raúl Dassori	42.5
4 × 400 metres relay	Brazil João de Oliveira Rosalvo Ramos Agenor da Silva Argemiro Roque	3:19.7	Argentina Antonio Pocovi Guillermo Evans Guillermo Avalos Julio Ferreyra	3:20.1	Chile Víctor Henríquez Reinaldo Martín Müller Gustavo Ehlers Hugo Nuttini	3:24.5
Cross country	Adán Zárate  Peru	36:51.4	Oscar Moreira  Uruguay	36:53.7	Pedro Caffa  Argentina	36:56.0
High jump	Hércules Azcune  Uruguay	1.90	Geraldo de Oliveira  Brazil	1.85	Alfredo Jadresic  Chile	1.85
Pole vault	Eduardo de Oca  Argentina	3.90	Luis Ganoza  Peru	3.90	Sinibaldo Gerbasi  Brazil	3.80
Long jump	Enrique Kistenmacher  Argentina	7.37 =CR	Carlos Vera  Chile	7.11	Máximo Reyes  Peru	7.04
Triple jump	Hélio da Silva  Brazil	15.26 CR	Geraldo de Oliveira  Brazil	15.03	Adhemar da Silva  Brazil	14.79
Shot put	Julián Llorente  Argentina	14.44	Nadim Marreis  Brazil	14.29	Juan Kahnert  Argentina	14.25
Discus throw	Emilio Malchiodi  Argentina	45.07	Karsten Brödersen  Chile	44.76	Manuel Consiglieri  Peru	44.14
Hammer throw	Edmundo Zúñiga  Chile	50.67	Emilio Ortiz  Argentina	48.22	Manuel Etchepare  Argentina	48.09
Javelin throw	Ricardo Héber  Argentina	65.56 CR	Horst Walter  Argentina	60.17	Efraín Santibáñez  Chile	57.59
Decathlon	Enrique Kistenmacher  Argentina	6853	Hércules Azcune  Uruguay	6205	Eduardo Julve  Peru	6048

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres	Julia Sánchez  Peru	12.7	Adriana Millard  Chile	12.8	Benedicta de Oliveira  Brazil	12.8
200 metres	Adriana Millard  Chile	25.8 CR	Melania Luz  Brazil	25.9	Benedicta de Oliveira  Brazil	26.5
80 metres hurdles	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	11.7	Marion Huber  Chile	12.2	Eliana Gaete  Chile	12.3
4 × 100 metres relay	Brazil Melânia Luz Elizabeth Müller Lucila Pini Benedita de Oliveira	49.2 CR	Chile Adriana Millard Annegret Weller Eliana Gaete Teresa Venegas	50.8	Argentina Lilia Menendez Nelida Cajide Irma Lavaglia Teresa Carvajal	51.0
High jump	Elizabeth Müller  Brazil	1.55	Lelia Spuhr  Argentina	1.50	Hilda Lassen  Brazil	1.50
Long jump	Wanda dos Santos  Brazil	5.53 CR	Adriana Millard  Chile	5.42	Hilda Yamasaki  Peru	5.39
Shot put	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	11.58	Elizabeth Müller  Brazil	11.29	Haydeé Valet  Argentina	11.12
Discus throw	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	37.36	Zita Brandt  Chile	36.28	Ingeborg Pfüller  Argentina	36.05
Javelin throw	Estrella Puente  Uruguay	37.74	Gerda Martín  Chile	37.39	Ingeborg Mello  Argentina	36.50

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Argentina (ARG)	14	10	11	35
2	Brazil (BRA)	6	7	8	21
3	Chile (CHI)	5	10	6	21
4	Peru (PER)	4	1	4	9
5	Uruguay (URU)	3	4	3	10
Totals (5 entries)		32	32	32	96

• Men Results – GBR Athletics
• Women Results – GBR Athletics
• Medallists