Athletics at the I Summer Universiade
Dates	3–6 September
Host city	Turin, Italy
Venue	Stadio Comunale di Torino
Events	29
← 1957 Paris 1961 Sofia → 1959 Summer Universiade

Athletics events were contested at the 1959 Summer Universiade in Turin, Italy.

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Livio Berruti (ITA)	10.5	Jean-Claude Penez (FRA)	10.8	Romain Poté (BEL)	10.8
200 metres details	Livio Berruti (ITA)	20.9	Nikolaos Georgopoulos (GRE)	21.6	Fritz Helfrich (FRG)	21.7
400 metres details	Viktor Šnajder (YUG)	47.5	Walter Oberste (FRG)	47.9	Otto Klappert (FRG)	47.9
800 metres details	Dieter Heydecke (FRG)	1:50.5	John Holt (GBR)	1:50.5	Kuniaki Watanabe (JPN)	1:50.9
1500 metres details	Béla Szekeres (HUN)	3:50.9	John Winch (GBR)	3:52.0	Kuniaki Watanabe (JPN)	3:52.1
5000 metres details	Kevin Gilligan (GBR)	14:09.8	Saburo Yokomizo (JPN)	14:14.8	Jaroslav Bohatý-Pavelka (TCH)	14:18.0
110 metres hurdles details	Stanko Lorger (YUG)	14.2	Nereo Svara (ITA)	14.4	Giorgio Mazza (ITA)	14.4
400 metres hurdles details	Salvatore Morale (ITA)	52.1	Germano Gimelli (ITA)	52.8	Wiesław Król (POL)	53.2
4 × 100 metres relay details	Italy (ITA) Guido De Murtas Salvatore Giannone Giorgio Mazza Livio Berruti	41.0	West Germany (FRG) Rudolf Sundermann Martin Reichert Burkhart Quantz Fritz Helfrich	41.0	France (FRA) Ali Brakchi Joël Caprice Jean-Claude Penez Guy Lagorce	41.4
4 × 400 metres relay details	West Germany (FRG) Albert Grawitz Burkhart Quantz Walter Oberste Otto Klappert	3:09.5	Italy (ITA) Elio Catola Nereo Fossati Mario Fraschini Germano Gimelli	3:11.4	Great Britain (GBR) Robert Hay Mike Robinson John Holt Norman Futter	3:12.2
High jump details	Cornel Porumb (ROM)	2.01	Vladimir Marjanović (YUG)	1.96	Raycho Aleksandrov (URS)  Kazimierz Fabrykowski (POL)	1.96
Pole vault details	Noriaki Yasuda (JPN)	4.35	Mirko Kuzmanovic (YUG)	4.30	Bernard Balastre (FRA)	4.20
Long jump details	Attilio Bravi (ITA)	7.46	Maurizio Terenziani (ITA)	7.43	Ali Brakchi (FRA)	7.42
Triple jump details	Oleg Ryakhovskiy (URS)	15.74	Koji Sakurai (JPN)	15.55	Hiroshi Shibata (JPN)	15.44
Shot put details	Hermann Lingnau (FRG)	17.32	Zsigmond Nagy (HUN)	17.10	Georgios Tsakanikas (GRE)	16.70
Discus throw details	Antonios Kounadis (GRE)	53.07	Vladimir Lyakhov (URS)	52.79	Eugeniusz Wachowski (POL)	52.22
Hammer throw details	Gyula Zsivótzky (HUN)	63.65	Anatoliy Samotsvetov (URS)	63.61	Krešimir Račić (YUG)	62.32
Javelin throw details	Hermann Salomon (FRG)	75.95	Gergely Kulcsár (HUN)	75.80	Alexandru Bizim (ROM)	72.81
Pentathlon details	Vasili Kuznetsov (URS)	4006	Hermann Salomon (FRG)	3530	Miloš Vojtek (TCH)	3048

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Giuseppina Leone (ITA)	11.7	Lyudmila Nechayeva (URS)	12.0	Catherine Capdevielle (FRA)	12.1
200 metres details	Giuseppina Leone (ITA)	23.8	Barbara Janiszewska (POL)	24.2	Lyudmila Nechayeva (URS)	24.7
800 metres details	Nicole Goullieux (FRA)	2:11.1	Edith Schiller (FRG)	2:11.3	Klavdiya Babintseva (URS)	2:12.3
80 metres hurdles details	Nelli Yelisayeva (URS)	11.1	Snezhana Kerkova (BUL)	11.4	Elżbieta Krzesińska (POL)	11.5
4 × 100 metres relay details	Soviet Union (URS) Nelli Yeliseyeva Larisa Kuleshova Tamara Makarova Lyudmila Nechayeva	46.9	Italy (ITA) Anna Doro Fausta Galluzzi Giuseppina Leone Nadia Mecocci	47.5	West Germany (FRG) Ilsabe Heider Antje Gleichfeld Kristianne Foss Inge Fuhrmann	48.1
High jump details	Iolanda Balaș (ROM)	1.80	Valentina Ballod (URS)	1.73	Jarosława Jóźwiakowska (POL)	1.61
Long jump details	Elżbieta Krzesińska (POL)	5.94	Tamara Makarova (URS)	5.76	Larisa Kuleshova (URS)	5.71
Shot put details	Lidia Sharamovich (BUL)	13.97	Milena Usenik (YUG)	13.90	Antonia Vehoff (FRG)	13.11
Discus throw details	Györgyi Hegedus (HUN)	46.76	Elivia Ricci (ITA)	45.56	Ida Bucsányi (HUN)	43.38
Javelin throw details	Elvīra Ozoliņa (URS)	49.95	Urszula Figwer (POL)	47.02	Maria Diţi (ROM)	46.86

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Italy (ITA)	7	6	1	14
2	Soviet Union (URS)	5	5	4	14
3	West Germany (FRG)	4	4	4	12
4	Hungary (HUN)	3	2	1	6
5	Yugoslavia (YUG)	2	3	1	6
6	Romania (ROM)	2	0	2	4
7	Poland (POL)	1	2	5	8
8	Japan (JPN)	1	2	3	6
9	Great Britain (GBR)	1	2	1	4
10	France (FRA)	1	1	4	6
11	Greece (GRE)	1	1	1	3
12	Bulgaria (BUL)	1	1	0	2
13	Czechoslovakia (TCH)	0	0	2	2
14	Belgium (BEL)	0	0	1	1
Totals (14 entries)		29	29	30	88

• World Student Games (Universiade - Men) - GBR Athletics
• World Student Games (Universiade - Women) - GBR Athletics