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European Athletics Council discuss future Championships in Malta

Posted October 19th, 2007 at 8:27 AM by Martin Kennedy

Section: News & Results, Track & Field, Olympics

The 118th meeting of the European Athletics Council, was held in Malta this week, to discuss and finalise plans for an additional European Athletics Championships, that would take place in an Olympic year, and to decide on the new concept for the European Athletics Team Championships.

Following this, President Hansjörg Wirz, updated the Presidents and General Secretaries of the 50 European Member Federations on these decisions.

Additional European Athletics Championships:

The additional championships are scheduled to take place one month before the Olympic Games commence in London, in five years time.

“The proposals for an additional championship were led by the Council, but follow numerous discussions with our stakeholders to have more European-wide competition and I am confident that the event will be a successful and enduring one” said President Wirz.

“We are all aware of the value of an additional European Athletics Championships and I was very happy that the plans were well received by the Member Federations. It is an exciting time for us as we now move into the implementation stage of the planning”

The Championships are planned to take place over five days with the majority of qualification rounds taking place on the Wednesday and early on Thursday, before four intense and exciting evenings of finals over the weekend.

European Athletics Team Championships:

European Athletics Vice President Jose Luis de Carlos, presented detailed plans on the European Athletics Team Championships which will replace the SPAR European Cup competition, commencing in 2009.

In summary, the European Athletics Team Championships will have 12 teams competing against each-other, as opposed to eight who currently compete in the European Cup, along with numerous innovations to the rules in both track & field events.

“The concept behind the Team Championships is an exciting and modern one” explained de Carlos.

“The emphasis will be on the country or the team as opposed to the individual athlete, and with the men and women’s points counting towards one team effort, we feel that the competitions will be exciting, energetic and unpredictable” he added.

The European Athletics Team Championships will take place on an annual basis, except in the year of an additional European Athletics Championships.

Venue decision:

A decision on the venue of the additional European Athletics Championships in 2012, is expected to be awarded by the Council in autumn 2008.

The next European Athletics Championships, of course, will take place in Barcelona, (ESP) from July 27 - August 1, 2010.

Other discussions:

The Council also held fruitful discussions on the future structure of the one-day meetings and although a lot more work and discussion is needed in this area, there were positive feelings towards reaching a satisfactory conclusion with all the relative stakeholders in the near future.

Discussions were also held on the area of anti-doping and in particular, the good work being done in this area to educate the future generations of athletes on the dangers involved in doping.

The President and Council again reiterated their strong anti-doping message by finalising the competition regulations to include an additional two-year ban on athletes convicted of a serious doping offence, being ineligible to compete in any European Athletics Championships. The news that both IAAF and IOC were looking at creating new regulations based on this initiative by European Athletics last March was welcomed by all.

Elsewhere, the Council agreed the terms of reference and nominations for the Race Walking, Cross Country, Mountain Running, Athletes, Medical & Anti-Doping and Reflection Commissions.

The nominations will be announced when the federations and nominees have been informed and accepted their nominations.
It was also agreed that the system for Member Federation support be restructured to simplify the administration procedures.

The next meeting of the European Athletics Council will be in April 2008.

Via: European Athletics

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