NEWSLETTER OF

JULY 2020

Special feature: European Athletics celebrates fi ve decades of highlights and memorable performances

50 YEARS YOUNG

• COMPETITION NEWS • 2020 INDOOR SEASON• CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS• MILESTONES IN WOMEN’S ATHLETICS

Like the rest of the world, athletics has had to adjust and introduce measures designed to stop the spread of the COVID-19 virus. The Olympic Games in Tokyo have been postponed for a year, the European Athletics Championships in Paris have been cancelled and the relentless disruption to all other competitions threatens the 2020 season.

From a European Athletics perspective, dealing with everything has been complicated by the unfortunate absence of our President Svein Arne Hansen, who suff ered a stroke on 15 March. As I write, Svein Arne is convalescing in an Oslo hospital where, thankfully, his family has been able to visit and speak with him. I am sure you all join me in wishing him a speedy and complete recovery.

In accordance with our Constitution, my responsibility as First Vice President is to deputise for Svein Arne until he is ready to resume his duties. This work has started and I am sincerely grateful to the Council, Executive Board and Head Offi ce staff for their immediate and generous support.

As we embrace working by videoconference, we are keenly aware that, as the leading Olympic sport, athletics must demonstrate the same leadership, strength and stability as in many other cases over the years.Our top priority, of course, is the safety and well-being of everyone in the athletics community, not least with regards to European Athletics competitions.

In this, we appreciate the work of the Coronavirus Task Force set up by Svein Arne back in February, which is coordinating with Member Federations, event organisers and other parties to ensure well-informed decisions are taken in good time to safeguard health and minimise the other impacts of the pandemic.

At the same time, we are innovating to engage fans in the absence of being able to attend events in person. In this edition of Inside Track you will fi nd a report on the 50 Golden Moments project, which celebrates European Athletics 50th Anniversary by utilising our video assets.

We are also looking to the future. The Council is united in the belief that these times off er opportunities to position our organisation and our sport for the

post-pandemic world. The pace of some measures may be slowed by various constraints and fi nancial prudence, but we remain committed to increasing the relevance of our sport and growing our community.

Rest assured that we will continue work on projects taking us towards Svein Arne’s vision of “athletics in every home and on

every phone in Europe”.

In the meantime, it is vital that you and your loved ones do everything possible to

remain safe.

DOBROMIR KARAMARINOV European Athletics Interim

President

Testing times and lights in the tunnel

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WELCOME MESSAGE

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European Athletics Association Européenne d’Athlétisme

President: Svein Arne Hansen

Vice Presidents:Dobromir KaramarinovCherry AlexanderLibor Varhanik

CEO: Christian Milz

Offi ce: Avenue Louis-Ruchonnet 16CH-1003 LausanneSwitzerlandPhone +41 (0)21 313 43 50Fax +41 (0)21 313 43 51offi ce@european-athletics.orgwww.european-athletics.org

Inside Track is published by European Athletics

Co-ordination:Rob Faulkner & Biljana DanicicEuropean Athletics Communication DepartmentPhone +41 (0)21 313 43 57media@european-athletics.org

Text, Photos:Biljana Danicic, Rob Faulkner, Bill Glad, Dobromir Karamarinov, Steven Mills, Phil Minshull (editor), Christian Milz, Phil Savage, Getty Images, SportBusiness Communications

Design, Production, Print:SportBusiness CommunicationsGautam House, 1-3 Shenley Ave, Middx, HA4 6BP, UKPhone +44 (0)1494 728842Phil.Savage@sbcoms.com, Pensord Press, UK

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European Athletics marks big milestone

The coronavirus pandemic has decimated the international athletics calendar but there is still plenty to celebrate in our sport and especially European Athletics 50th Anniversary.

The organisation was founded on 6 November 1970, formally coming to light on the opening day of the fi rst European Athletic Association Congress in Paris. The Congress opened with the encouraging words of the Marquess of Exeter, President of what was then known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation, sent by telegram: “Best wishes for the meeting and the future of the European Athletic Association.”

Fifty years later, digital communications have taken the place of telegrams and, fi ttingly, in May 2020

European Athletics unveiled a major social media campaign. This will be rolled out across all digital platforms over the next six months in celebration of the governing body reaching its Golden Jubilee.

The campaign looks back at 50 great moments of the past fi ve decades and celebrates the achievements of the greatest European athletes. There will be historic and memorable moments from major European competitions from the Helsinki 1971 European Athletics Championships all the way through to the Glasgow 2019 European Athletics Indoor Championships.

It will augment other celebrations planned for later in the year closer to the date of the actual founding of the continental governing body for athletics.

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Scan to view 50th Anniversary social media campaign

Duplantis soars into new territory

Swede’s exploits just one of the higlights of an action-packed indoor season

With such a short gap between the World Athletics Championships last October and a now rescheduled Olympic Games, many expected the indoor season to be something of a footnote prior to the summer campaign. But the sheer brilliance of Sweden’s Armand Duplantis, who showed he is quite possibly on his way to becoming the greatest pole vaulter in history, saw that notion quickly evaporate.

Still only 20, Duplantis won all five of his competitions in a three-week period in February, scaling 6.00m or higher each time. The 2018 European champion twice soared to world record heights, clearing 6.17m in Torun before rocketing over 6.18m on his first attempt in Glasgow one week later.

Duplantis admitted his exertions were beginning to catch up with him by the time he finished off his season with a pair of meetings in France but he still rounded off his brief but spectacular series of outings with clearances of 6.07m in Lievin and 6.01m in Clermont-Ferrand followed by more close attempts at a prospective world record height of 6.19m.

The Swede was not the only European athlete to amass an impressive winning streak during the indoor campaign. Already co-holder of the world indoor U20 record of 1.99m, world high jump silver medallist Yaroslava Mahuchikh gained sole ownership of that mark with 2.01m in her season’s debut on home soil in Lviv on 18 January – the Ukrainian’s first of seven wins during the season.

Mahuchikh improved her record to 2.02m in Karlsruhe before concluding her campaign at the Karsten Warholm International in Ulsteinvik, Norway. The 2019 European Athlete of the Year himself made his sole appearance of the season at the event, winning the 400m in his hometown in a European-leading time of 45.97 on the day of his 24th birthday.

Two more continental records fell in the USA at the end of February. Germany’s Konstanze Klosterhalfen shattered the European indoor 5000m record with 14:30.79 in Boston before Great Britain’s Marc Scott followed suit a day later, clocking 13:08.87 on the same track to eclipse Mo Farah’s mark of 13:09.16.

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2020 INDOOR SEASON

Poland has topped the medal table at the last two European Athletics Indoor Championships and they will be looking to do so for a third time inside the Arena Torun from 5-7 March. The gold rush for the hosts could begin on the first day with European outdoor champions Paulina Guba and Michal Haratyk both expected to be among the contenders for shot put honours. Marcin Lewandowski has already confirmed he is targeting his third successive title in the 1500m which concludes Friday’s programme.

There could be further success for the hosts in the last individual event of the championships with Ewa Swoboda expected to defend her 60m crown. The programme ends with the women’s 4x400m relay in which the host nation will be aiming for a hat-trick of European indoor titles .

The action begins on Thursday with an abbreviated session of qualifying, ensuring an even distribution of finals across the following three days. These events will be preceded by the return of DNA, which made its debut at the 2019 European Games in Minsk. On this occasion the event will be solely for U20 athletes from six nations including hosts Poland who will take part in a fast-paced 10-event programme across two hours.

The countdown is on for Torun 2021

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Sweden’s Armand Duplantis soars to a world pole vault record of 6.18m in Glasgow

If those athletes standing on the top of the medal rostrum at the Lisboa 2019 SPAR European Cross Country Championships last December looked familiar, you were not imagining things. Five of the six winners in 2019 successfully defended their titles from Tilburg at the Bela Vista Park. In the case of Turkey’s Yasemin Can and Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen, both runners triumphed for a record fourth consecutive time in their respective senior women’s and men’s U20 categories.

Gold medals go to familiar faces in LisbonRecord fourth successive wins for Can and Ingebrigtsen

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SPAR EUROPEAN CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS

OPPOSITE Moller won the women’s U23 race by 39 seconds

BELOWGressier makes it three in a row completing a hat trick of individual and team titles

Can was racing for the first time in almost five months after a calf tear ended her summer season prematurely but showed little sign of that injury as she went to the front at around two kilometres, eventually winning by 15 seconds as she covered a demanding and undulating 8.3km course in 26:52.

Ingebrigtsen was even more dominant, crossing the line after 6.3km of very challenging terrain in 18:20 to win by 38 seconds in his final race before officially graduating into the senior ranks. However, the biggest margin of victory came in the women’s U23 race when Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller won in 20:30 putting 39 seconds between herself and her nearest rival over the 6.3km course.

Jimmy Gressier inadvertently became a social media sensation after his now infamous finish line celebrations went badly wrong in 2018. The effervescent Frenchman opted for a more modest celebration as the finish line approached this time as he finished his career in the U23 ranks by winning his third consecutive individual and team titles, covering the 8.3km course in 24:17.

Unlike the rest of her fellow individual gold medallists from 2018, defending women’s U20 champion Nadia Battocletti didn’t have matters all her own way. It was only on the steep descent in the final few hundred metres that the Italian was able to put some distance between herself and Slovenia’s Klara Lukan as Battocletti won by three seconds in 13:58 over the 4.3km course.

Fitwi and Moller shine in Permit Meetings Once again, a series of European Athletics Cross Country Permit Meetings took place across Scandinavia and western Europe, often giving runners a chance to gauge their preparations for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

The unofficial stars of the series were Germany’s Samuel Fitwi and Denmark’s Anna Emilie Moller. Fitwi just missed out on the individual medals in Lisbon but clearly worked hard over the next six weeks, winning over 9.5km in the Belgian town of Hannut on 19 January against a high quality field that included home favourite Soufiane Bouchikhi and past winner Andy Vernon from Great Britain.

Moller gave a glimpse of the terrific form she displayed in Lisbon by producing another runaway victory over 8km at the Warandecross in Tilburg on 24 November, triumphing by 31 seconds. There was also home success in the senior men’s 10km for Mike Foppen in 30:01.

Dublin ready to goDespite the coronavirus pandemic having devastated the international athletics calendar, one of European Athletics’ major competitions hasn’t currently been affected: the Fingal-Dublin 2020 SPAR European Cross Country Championships. It is expected to take place as planned on 13 December in the grounds of the National Sports Centre Campus in Blanchardstown, situated in the north-west of the Irish capital.

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EUROPEAN ATHLETICS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS

One year to go until Minsk 2021 World’s premier team competition awarded to the Belarusian capital for the fi rst time

Many of Europe’s top athletes will once again make their way to Minsk next year when the Belarusian capital plays host to the 2021 European Athletics Team Championships Super League.

The competition is set to take place on 19-20 June and will bring together reigning champions Poland along with France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, Spain and Ukraine as well as Portugal and hosts Belarus.

This will be the third time in as many years that one of European Athletics’ leading competitions will be staged in Minsk, following two innovative and well-received events last year: the inaugural DNA competition, as part of the European Games

in June last year, and then The Match Europe v USA in September.

Both competitions drew enthusiastic and near-capacity crowds to the 22,000-seater Dinamo National Olympic Stadium. Similar attendances are anticipated for the world’s premier international team competition next summer, which has been slimlined down from 12 nations and will take place across two days as opposed to three in 2021.

The 2021 European Athletics Team Championships Second League will be in Valmiera, Latvia while next year’s Third League will be in Nicosia, Cyprus. The venue for the 2021 First League will be decided at the Executive Board meeting on 23 July.

LEFT Minsk has been a regular staging post in the European Athletics calendar and hosted the fi rst edition of The Match Europe v USA in 2019

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Ignite your BLUE.

TTEU Ignite Your Blue ad 297x210mm.indd 1 10/06/2020 16:20

Ignite your BLUE.

TTEU Ignite Your Blue ad 297x210mm.indd 1 10/06/2020 16:20

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COUNCIL UPDATE

The European Athletics Council met via video conference on 7-8 May and took a number of key decisions about those of its competitions that have been affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

European Athletics U18 Championships: this was postponed from 2020 to 2021 and Rieti, Italy will continue as the host. The Executive Board in June confirmed at the championships will take place from 26-29 August 2021. European Throwing Cup: the 2020 edition had been cancelled prior to the Council meeting and the competition was also reallocated to Leiria, Portugal for three consecutive years. It will be staged at the same venue through until 2023 and the 2021 edition is scheduled to be held on 13-14 March.

European 10,000m Cup: the 2020 edition was cancelled but the 2021 edition will be staged in

London, Great Britain for the third successive time in conjunction with the Night of the 10,000m PBs which takes place at the Parliament Hill Athletics Track in the north-west of the British capital.

European Mountain Running Championships: the competition will not now take place in 2020. Cinfaes, Portugal remains the host venue and the rearranged date has been confirmed for 3 July 2021.

The Match Europe v USA 2021: this event will not take place as scheduled in Minsk, Belarus and has been cancelled due to calendar congestion next year. The next edition of The Match will be in 2023 in the USA, as originally planned.

In addition, the European Athletics Coronavirus Task Force is continuously monitoring the individual country restrictions in place across the continent and each country’s exit from lockdown.

Council confirms key changes to calendar date

European Athletics Executive Board backs Black Lives Matter

European Athletics has added its voice to many others from across the sporting spectrum in supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.

In his opening statement to the European Athletics Executive Board meeting held by videoconference on 10 June, European Athletics Interim President, Dobromir Karamarinov commented: “The world has been rocked by the events that have occurred in the USA these past weeks since the death of George Floyd on 25 May and athletics has felt the impact of what has happened as much as any sport on the planet.

“At European Athletics, we stand strongly behind our Code of Ethics that states “there shall be no discrimination in athletics on the basis of race, sex, ethnic origin, colour, culture, religion, political opinion, marital status, sexual orientation or any unfair or other irrelevant factor.

“Now, more than ever, we must take notice and work together with our athletes and Member Federations to make sure that we live up to these words.”

Convention moves online

The 2020 European Athletics Convention, which had been scheduled to take place in October this year in Tallinn, Estonia, will be transformed into an online e-Convention.

The Executive Board adopted this measure due to the continued uncertainty surrounding travel between many countries in Europe caused by the coronavirus pandemic, and the possibility that some Member Federations may still not to be able to attend in person.

The format and programme of the e-Convention is still to be established but organisers anticipate it will include all the main features of the conventions of recent years.

Taking advantage of the increased connectivity and use of technology which has been apparent during the lockdown, the Executive Board also approved a series of workshops with its Member Federations entitled: ‘Member Federations and European Athletics’ Leaders e-Meetings 2020’.

The Convention in 2021 will take place in Lausanne, Switzerland.

EXECUTIVE BOARD UPDATE

There shall be no discrimination in athletics on the basis of race, sex,

ethnic origin, colour, culture, religion, political opinion, marital status,

sexual orientation or any unfair or other irrelevant

factor

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Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships cancelledDifficult decision taken in light of global coronavirus pandemic

The Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships, which had been scheduled to take place at the Charlety Stadium from 25-30 August was sadly cancelled on 23 April. Preparations were well underway to make it one of the highlights of the entire summer sporting calendar thus making the cancelation doubly difficult.

The decision to cancel the championships – the first time the European Athletics Championships have ever been formally cancelled as the 1942 edition had not been awarded before World War II broke out – was taken by the Paris 2020 Local Organising Committee (LOC) and French Athletics Federation (FFA) at an extraordinary LOC Executive Committee meeting. This was held following an earlier meeting between the relevant French public authorities.

European Athletics and the Paris 2020 LOC had previously been evaluating options whereby this year’s championships could go ahead as planned and a feasibility study had been initiated once the seriousness of the global coronavirus pandemic became apparent. All the parties involved in the project were subsequently informed of the decision to cancel after the LOC Executive Committee meeting.

The difficult decision was made after assessing all associated risks in staging the championships in the context of the current situation as well as the prevailing restrictions on mass gatherings in France. An evaluation made by the FFA Medical Commission was also taken into account by the LOC Executive Committee when considering the impact on spectators and accredited persons who would attend the championships.

ABOVEThe Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships was due to take place in the Charlety Stadium

OPPOSITEThe championships was due to conclude with the decathlon 1500m, which would have featured world record-holder Kevin Mayer

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COMPETITION NEWS

European Athletics Interim President, Dobromir Karamarinov said on the day of the announcement: “We had hoped in these troubled times to off er European athletes a major event to aim for at the end of this summer. Unfortunately, we were informed by the LOC and French Athletics Federation that they were no longer able to proceed with delivering the championships this August and were forced to cancel the event.

“While we regret announcing the cancellation of our European Athletics Championships, it is worth reiterating that in these unprecedented times the health and safety of all athletics’ stakeholders including athletes, fans, offi cials, partners and everyone connected with the sport is paramount. We will always do what is best for the members of our athletics family and the wider public.”

Following the decision to cancel this year’s European Athletics Championships, attention now turns to Munich where preparations are already advanced for the next edition in 2022.

These championships will once again be part of the successful multi-sport European Championships, with athletics being staged alongside the European Championships of other major sports. Athletics will take place from 15-21 August in the city’s iconic Olympic Stadium, which hosted the 1972 Olympic Games and the 2002 European Athletics Championships.

In March, owing to the incapacity of European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen following his stroke earlier in the month, European Athletics Vice President and Executive Board member Libor Varhaník took over as chair of the European Championships 2022 Board.

Munich 2022 now on the horizon

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STATE OF OUR SPORT

Looking to the futureEuropean Athletics CEO Christian Milz looks at our post-pandemic sport

Probably the most over-used – but nevertheless appropriate – phrase of the past few months has been “living in unprecedented times”. The arrival of COVID-19 in our lives has forced us to re-evaluate our lifestyles, our habits, our working practices and our view of sport.

As the world shut down, so did sporting events, thus allowing us a rare and valuable moment of introspection into the role sport plays in today’s society.

Can athletes, deprived of events, keep motivated and train at home properly? Can sports events without fans really be considered true sports events? What is the value of sport on TV without fans? How can we give value to our sponsors outside of events? As we grappled with these questions one thing was clear: we all missed sport in our lives.

To replace these missing live events we came up with virtual jump-off s, live athlete chats on social media, virtual training sessions, and we raided our vaults to provide content to those deprived of their beloved sport. I am glad to say that European Athletics played its part.

Using President Hansen’s mantra of “athletics in every home and on every phone” we have been celebrating our 50th Anniversary with 50 Golden Moments on social media, we are revamping our YouTube channel using our video archive and we will now begin work on the convention this October, which will take the form of an e-convention due to the fact that there is still great uncertainty about travel.

Despite the huge disappointment over the cancellation of the Paris 2020 European Athletics Championships, our fl agship biennial event, the athletics outlook in Europe remains positive.

As an organisation European Athletics is fi nancially sound, thanks to many years of good planning and fi nancial prudence, and we are hopeful that many of the events postponed in 2020 will now take place in 2021.

European Athletics’ main function during these diffi cult times must be the support of our Member Federations, who are in touch daily with the athletics grassroots across Europe.

As well as direct support via the Member Federation Support Programme, the federations will also have the chance to share knowledge and best practice via the European Athletics Leaders e-Meetings, making good use of technology to keep in contact with each other, share good practice and other experiences without resorting to physical travelling.

The past few months have shown us new ways of working and prompted us to take a fresh look at the business model of our sport. Yet at the heart of our sport lies the athletes, the fans and the live event itself and, thankfully as I write this column, I feel optimistic that before long these will all return to be part of our lives once again.

Christian MilzEuropean Athletics CEO

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CELEBRATING 50 YEARSCELEBRATING 50 YEARS

European Athletics’ 50th Anniversary

A celebration of the fi rst fi ve decades

CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHTNorwegian distance running great Ingrid Kristiansen at the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart

Czech javelin legend Jan Zelezny at the 2006 European Athletics Championships in Gothenburg

East Germany’s Olaf Beyer upset the British pair of Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe in a memorable 800m contest at the 1978 European Athletics Championships in Prague

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Scan to watch European Athletics 50 Golden Moments launch video

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ADRIAAN PAULENNationality:NETHERLANDSPresident:1970 - 1976

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYThe Dutchman can be considered the founding father of European Athletics as he pushed for greater continental autonomy during the 1960s. He was the head of the IAAF European Committee in the second half of that decade and was elected the fi rst president of what was then the European Athletic Association in 1970.

He stood down in 1976 to take over as IAAF President, a position he held until 1981. Paulen died in 1985 at the age of 82.

DID YOU KNOW ?Paulen was an international 400m and 800m runner, competing in the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games. He was also a notable member of the Dutch resistance during World War II.

ARTHUR GOLDNationality:GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELANDPresident: 1976 - 1987

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYNo better tribute to Gold’s impact on European Athletics during his 11 years at the helm can be written than these lines from Athletics International as part of an obituary in 2002, after he died at the age of 85:

“His crowning achievement was presiding over the European AA from 1976 to 1987. In that post his diplomatic skills, encyclopaedic knowledge and a mission to protect the sport from the dangers of drug use and over-commercialisation made him one of the most respected fi gures in the sport.”

DID YOU KNOW ?Gold was an international high jumper and one of Britain’s top coaches, working with two-time Olympic Games silver medallist Dorothy Tyler among others.

The fi ve presidentsEuropean Athletics has grown and prospered over 50 years under the guidance of fi ve remarkable presidents.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

ADRIAAN PAULENNationality:NETHERLANDSPresident:1970 - 1976

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYThe Dutchman can be considered the founding father of European Athletics as he pushed for greater continental autonomy during the 1960s. He was the head of the IAAF European Committee in the second half of that decade and was elected the fi rst president of what was then the European Athletic Association in 1970.

He stood down in 1976 to take over as IAAF President, a position he held until 1981. Paulen died in 1985 at the age of 82.

DID YOU KNOW ?Paulen was an international 400m and 800m runner, competing in the 1920, 1924 and 1928 Olympic Games. He was also a notable member of the Dutch resistance during World War II.

ARTHUR GOLDNationality:GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELANDPresident: 1976 - 1987 1976 - 1987

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYNo better tribute to Gold’s impact on European Athletics during his 11 years at the helm can be written than these lines from Athletics International as part of an obituary in 2002, after he died at the age of 85:

“His crowning achievement was presiding over the European AA from 1976 to 1987. In that post his diplomatic skills, encyclopaedic knowledge and a mission to protect the sport from the dangers of drug use and over-commercialisation made him one of the most respected fi gures in the sport.”

DID YOU KNOW ?Gold was an international high jumper and one of Britain’s top coaches, working with two-time Olympic Games silver medallist Dorothy Tyler among others.

The fi ve presidentsEuropean Athletics has grown and prospered over 50 years under the guidance of fi ve remarkable presidents.

CARL-OLAF HOMENNationality:FINLANDPresident:1987 - 1999

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYHomen’s 12 years as president saw huge political changes and a rapid expansion of the number of Member Federations. Competitions inaugurated during his presidency included: the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, European Athletics U23 Championships and European 10,000m Cup.

“Athletics in Europe and worldwide – even though the EAA is now stronger fi nancially, administratively, and sportingly than in the past – has to deal with new challenges and problems,” he said in 1998, showing both his successes and his vision.

DID YOU KNOW ?Homen was an outstanding distance and cross country runner and is a member of the University of Delaware Hall of Fame. He was also Finland’s Defence Minister from 1975-76.

HANSJÖRG WIRZNationality:SWITZERLANDPresident:1999 - 2015

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYWirz continued his predecessor’s expansion of the European competition base. New innovations included the European Athletics Team Championships, European Throwing Cup, the European Mountain Running Championships and changing the European Athletics Championships to a two-year cycle.

He strengthened European Athletics’ fi nancial position through improved TV contracts and was the instigator of the multi-sport European Championships. He retired after 16 years in the role, the longest-serving President to date.

DID YOU KNOW ?Wirz was fourth in the 1969 European Athletics Championships 400m hurdles and competed in the 1972 Olympic Games. He was the meeting director for Zurich’s Weltklasse meeting from 2000-2006.

SVEIN ARNE HANSENNationality:NORWAYPresident:2015 -

HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCYHansen’s achievements during his fi rst four-year term can be found on the European Athletics website in the document Change Delivered. His successes in such a short period of time have enhanced the profi le of the sport in Europe.

“Almost everyone in our sport is now comfortable with 21st century discussions like how to use social media, commercial products and services and even new formats for our events and competition such as the multi-sport European Championships or our DNA project,” said Hansen last year.

DID YOU KNOW ?Hansen is a stamp dealer by profession but was also the meeting director of the illustrious Bislett Games in Oslo for 24 years, from 1985-2009.

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Milestones in European women’s athletics

Until the European Athletics Championships in Rome, the longest event for women was the 1500m but the 3000m was added to the programme in the Italian capital and won by Finland’s Nina Holman.

USSR’s Tatyana Zelentsova won the fi rst European Athletics Championships 400m hurdles gold medal in Prague in a world record of 54.89.

The women’s 3000m is contested for the fi rst time at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and won by Italy’s Agnese Possamai.

The marathon is added to the European Athletics Championships women’s programme and the fi rst champion, around the streets of Athens, is Portugal’s Rosa Mota, who was to win the event on three successive occasions.

Distance running legend Ingrid Kristiansen from Norway wins the fi rst 10,000m at the European Athletics Championships. Women’s race walking is also added and the 10km event is won by Spain’s Mari Cruz Diaz at the age of 16.

Austria’s Erika Strasser is elected as the fi rst ever woman member of the European Athletics Council.

The women’s triple jump is contested for the fi rst time in a major championship, albeit as a demonstration event, at the European Athletics Indoor Championships. USSR’s Galina Chistyakova comes out on top in Glasgow.

Erika Strasser becomes the fi rst ever woman to be elected as a European Athletics Vice President.

Polish legend Irena Szewinska is also elected at the Congress in Paris and joins Erika Strasser on the European Athletics Council.

1982

1982

1986

1987

1990

1991

1995

1974

Tatyana Zelentsova

Mari Cruz Diaz

1978

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CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

The fi rst women’s pole vault at a European Athletics Indoor Championships is won by Iceland’s Vala Flosadottir in Stockholm.

The women’s pole vault and hammer events make their debuts at the European Athletics Championships in Budapest and are won by Ukraine’s Anzhela Balakhonova and Romania’s Mihaela Melinte, respectively.

Belarus’ Alesya Turava takes the fi rst European Athletics Championships women’s 3000m steeplechase gold medal in Gothenburg.

European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz launches a major initiative to address gender equality at the Congress in Lausanne: the European Athletics Women’s Leadership Awards and Women’s Leadership Programme.

The fi rst ever Women in World Athletics Seminar is held in Solihull, Great Britain, and hosted by British Athletics and European Athletics.

European Athletics and 37 Member Federations reaffi rm their commitment to gender equality by signing the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport at the European Athletics Congress in Skopje.

The competition programme at the European Athletics Championships attains gender equality with the addition of the women’s 50km race walk. Portugal’s reigning world champion Ines Henriques adds the continental title to her medal haul, winning by more than three minutes.

The Congress in Prague witnesses a record fi ve women elected to the European Athletics Council, including its second female Vice President Cherry Alexander from Great Britain.

The 2019 Congress also made the following decision for future ‘Election Congresses’: the President and the Vice Presidents shall include both a minimum of two of each genders as follows and the 13 other Council Members shall include at least fi ve of each gender. The next ‘Election Congress’ will see the highest number of women ever elected to the European Athletics Council.

1996

1998

2006

2009

Vala Flosadottir

2013

2013

Ines Henriques

2018

2019

2019

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THIS PAGE CLOCKWISE FROM LEFTEast Germany’s Heike Dreschler. Scan the code below to watch Drechsler’s best moments from the European Championships

West Germany’s Ulrike Meyfarth

USSR’s Yuriy Sedykh

OPPOSITEFrance’s 4x100m quartet at the 1990 European Athletics Championships in Split

Highlights of the fi rst fi fty years In the fi rst 2020 issue of Inside Track, we take an in-depth look at key moments from the fi rst 25 years of European Athletics

INSIDE TRACK | 25

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

World records set at the European ChampionshipsThree world records were set and another equalled at the 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart. One mark still stands nearly 35 years later.

Yuriy Sedykh won his third successive title in the hammer with a massive 86.74m against Soviet rival Sergey Litvinov whose silver medal-winning throw of 85.74m remains the fi fth best in history.

Great Britain’s Fatima Whitbread set a world javelin record of 77.44m in qualifying before winning gold the next day in 76.32m – also in excess of the previous record. Sedykh’s compatriot Marina Stepanova won the 400m hurdles in a world record of 53.32 aged 36.

Heike Drechsler sped to the 200m title in 21.71 equalling the world record set by fellow East German Marita Koch, who won not only six European titles in her career but also broke three world records at the European Championships in the process.

Koch became the fi rst athlete ever to break 49 seconds in the 400m at the 1978 European

Championships in Prague with 48.94. This was followed by two more world records in Athens 1982: 3:19.05 in the 4x400m and 48.15 in the 400m, which is still a championship record.

Another barrier was broken by Tatyana Zelentsova at the 1978 European Championships. The Soviet became the fi rst athlete in history to break the 55-second barrier in the 400m hurdles, winning the title in Prague in 54.89 and lowering her own mark from 55.31. Zelentsova went on to coach Stepanova, who succeeded her as world record-holder.

Other world records were set in Athens in 1982 by Great Britain’s Daley Thompson with 8774 points in the decathlon and West German high jumper Ulrike Meyfarth with 2.02m. Meyfarth was to clear another world record of 2.03m at the 1983 European Cup in London, where she was matched by her Soviet rival Tamara Bykova.

One of the most unexpected world records at a European Athletics Championships came from the French 4x100m quartet who clocked 37.79 at the 1990 edition in Split, breaking the record set by the USA at the 1984 Olympic Games.

Clean sweepsThe 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart was a standout event for one-nation dominance with four notable clean sweeps.

Yuriy Sedykh led the Soviet Union to their second successive clean sweep in the hammer. An identical triumvirate claimed medals in both 1982 and 1986 although in a slightly diff erent order with Sergey Litvinov leapfrogging Igor Nikulin for silver in 1986.

Future Olympic champion Romas Ubartas also headed up a clean sweep for the Soviet Union in the discus.

On the track, Sebastian Coe won his fi nal major title in the 800m, ahead of compatriots Tom McKean and Steve Cram, while Stefano Mei led Italy to a 1-2-3 in the 10,000m.

Eight years later, Martin Fiz headed an all-Spanish marathon podium in Helsinki 1994 while the late Aleksandr Klimenko led Ukraine to a clean sweep in the shot put.

On the women’s side, Tatyana Providokhina headed a Soviet Union shutout of the 800m medals in Prague in 1978 while Katrin Krabbe led the East Germans to a sweep of the 100m medals at Split 1990.

Clean sweepsThe 1986 European Athletics Championships in Stuttgart was a standout event for one-nation dominance with four notable clean sweeps.

Yuriy Sedykh led the Soviet Union to their second successive clean sweep in the hammer. An identical triumvirate claimed medals in both 1982 and 1986 although in a slightly diff erent order with Sergey Litvinov leapfrogging Igor Nikulin for silver in 1986.

Future Olympic champion Romas Ubartas also headed up a clean sweep for the Soviet Union in the discus.

On the track, Sebastian Coe won his fi nal major title in the 800m, ahead of compatriots Tom McKean and Steve Cram, while Stefano Mei led Italy to a 1-2-3 in the 10,000m.

Eight years later, Martin Fiz headed an all-Spanish marathon podium in Helsinki 1994 while the late Aleksandr Klimenko led Ukraine to a clean sweep in the shot put.

On the women’s side, Tatyana Providokhina headed a Soviet Union shutout of the 800m medals in Prague in 1978 while Katrin Krabbe led the East Germans to a sweep of the 100m medals at Split 1990.

26 | INSIDE TRACK

This is the one that’s eluded me. I’ve waited a hell of a long time for this medal. I’ve battled for it

since 1978. It’s very special.

INSIDE TRACK | 27

Sebastian Coe in Stuttgart 1986, after winning his fi rst major

championship 800m title

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

28 | INSIDE TRACK

Home successesYugoslavia won two gold medals on a memorable fi nal day of the 1990 European Athletics Championships courtesy of two outstanding teenage performances in front of a joyous capacity crowd which included the Yugoslav President Borisav Jovic.

The gold rush began unexpectedly in the 1500m with 19-year-old Snezana Pajkic, who had fi nished seventh in her heat and only just qualifi ed on time, taking full advantage of a slow tactical fi nal to sprint home in 4:08.12.

On her victory lap, an elated Pajkic ran into the arms of her 19-year-old compatriot Dragutin Topic. Suitably inspired, Topic went on to clear 2.34m on his fi rst attempt, which proved suffi cient to win the high jump.

The 1971 European Championships in Helsinki was highlighted by a 5000/10,000m double by Juha Vaatainen, who part of the vanguard of the Finnish distance running resurgence in the 1970s, while Sari Essayah won Finland’s only gold medal of the championships in the 10km race walk in Helsinki 1994.

Pietro Mennea very nearly came away with two gold medals on home soil at the 1974 championships in Rome. After fi nishing second to Valeriy Borzov in the 100m, Mennea then stormed to gold in the 200m from lane two.

West German athletics fans might have been disappointed that their athletes won just two gold medals in Stuttgart 1986 but Harald Schmid completed a popular hat-trick of 400m hurdles victories while Klaus Tafelmeier was victorious in the javelin.

BELOWScan to watch Harald Schmid setting his record

INSIDE TRACK | 29

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

LEFTUlf Timmermann set the longest standing European Athletics Indoor Championship record with a 22.19m eff ort in 1988

OPPOSITE TOPYugoslavia’s Dragutin Topic won at his home European Athletics Championships in Split

OPPOSITE

BOTTOMJuha Vaatainen won both 5000m and 10,000m in the 1971 European Championships

Longest standing European Championship recordsTwo still-standing European Championships records were set in Prague 1978, surviving 12 subsequent championships across the next 42 years.

East Germany’s Olaf Beyer upset Steve Ovett and Sebastian Coe in a memorable 800m contest and his time of 1:43.84 survived not only Coe but also the attentions of Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer, with the pair winning European titles over two laps of the track in 1986 and 2002 respectively and holding the world record in tandem between 1979 and 2010.

Martti Vainio’s winning time in the 10,000m of 27:30.99 from 1978 has proved equally impregnable while three performances from Athens 1982, including Harald Schmid’s 400m hurdles time of 47.48, have yet to be surpassed.

The longest standing championship record at the European Athletics Indoor Championships goes back even further in terms of antiquity.

Competing under the Czechoslovakian fl ag, Helena Fibingerova’s 1977 mark of 21.46m in the shot put in San Sebastian remains the standard bearer.

The longest standing record on the men’s side is also in the shot put and belongs to East Germany’s Ulf Timmermann with his eff ort of 22.19m from 1988.

Two championship records from the European Athletics U20 Championships date back as far as 1973 when the event was staged in Duisberg, West Germany. East German sprinter Barbel Eckert’s 22.85 in the 200m and Sweden’s Inger Knutsson who won the 1500m in 4:07.47 remain intact after nearly fi ve decades.

10 or more medalsDespite taking place on a biennial cycle since 2012, Poland’s Irena Szewinska remains the only athlete in history to win double-digit medals at the European Athletics Championships.

Szewinska won fi ve gold medals along with one silver and four bronze medals in her venerable career, picking up medals in no less than six diff erent events.

After winning three gold medals at the 1966 European Championships, Szewinska won a 100/200m double at Rome 1974 and fi nished her European Championships career in Prague four

years later with bronze in the 400m and 4x400m.

Thomas Wessinghage is the most bemedaled athlete on the men’s side at the European Athletics Indoor Championships with 12 medals in total, including six gold medals between 1972 and 1983. Wessinghage won the 1500m title four times between 1975 and 1983 as well as two titles for West Germany in the now discontinued 4x800m.

The most bemedaled athlete on the women’s side – and with the most medals in a single event – at the European Indoor Championships remains Helena Fibingerova with 11 medals in the shot put, eight gold medals and three silvers.

Great Britain bucks the European Cup trendThe Soviet Union and East Germany dominated the early decades of the European Cup, in both the men’s and women’s competitions, but their hegemony was halted in 1989.

For the fi rst time in European Cup history, a new nation stood on top of the podium as Great Britain & NI prevailed on home soil in the men’s competition, winning with 115 points ahead of East Germany and the Soviet Union, who had 103 and 101 points respectively.

Notable individual performances came from Linford Christie, who won the 100m - his third of 13 individual wins at the European Cup - and Tom McKean, who took his third of four 800m wins.

Colin Jackson won the 110m hurdles in 13.56 against a 2.9 m/s headwind while Kriss Akabusi handed Harald Schmid his fi rst defeat in the 400m hurdles in this competition since 1981. Gateshead concluded with the hosts winning the men’s 4x400m, their fi rst of eight wins at the European Cup in the event.

On the women’s side, East Germany accumulated nine titles from 10 editions of the European Cup between 1970 and 1989 although the Soviet Union interrupted that streak in 1985 when they won in front of their home fans in Moscow.

One of the East German heroines during this era was sprinter Marlies Gohr, who took six successive victories in both the 100m and 4x100m between 1977 and 1987.

OPPOSITEGreat Britain’s Colin Jackson won the 110m hurdles at the European Cup in 1989

THIS PAGEPoland’s Irena Szewinska remains the only athlete in history to win double-digit medals at the European Athletics Championships

30 | INSIDE TRACK

was sprinter Marlies Gohr, who took six successive victories in both the 100m and 4x100m between

INSIDE TRACK | 31

1989 in Gateshead was the most pressure I was ever under in my

entire life. I was so relieved to get over the fi nal hurdle and win. If you fi nd pictures of me crossing the line, you will see the relief written all over my

face. As you are representing a team… you have to deliver for your team.

Colin Jackson

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

Growth of the European ChampionshipsThe 1978 European Athletics Championships in Prague was a milestone edition as it was the fi rst championships to attract more than 1000 competitors, with 1004 athletes competing at the Evzena Rosickeho Stadium.

The changing political landscape following the breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, as well as the addition of women’s events, has led to further growth during the 1990s.

From 33 nations taking part at the 1990 European Championships in Split, the number rose sharply to 44 nations at the 1994 European

Championships in Helsinki where 1113 athletes took part.

Forty-eight nations were represented at the 2002 European Championships in Munich while 50 have participated at the fi ve editions of the European Championships since Barcelona 2010.

The newest addition to the European Athletics family is Kosovo, which took part for the fi rst time at the 2016 European Championships in Amsterdam. This remains the best attended edition of the European Championships to date with 1457 athletes taking part.

32 | INSIDE TRACK

Bareclona 2010 was the fi rst European Athletics

Championships to include 50 Member

Federations

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

Alnwick kicks off the European Cross Country ChampionshipsWhile the roots of the World Cross Country Championships can be traced back to the turn of the 20th century with the fi rst staging of the International Cross Country Championships in 1903, its continental counterpart has so far been in existence for less than three decades.

The SPAR European Cross Country Championships was added to the competition calendar in 1994 to incentivise European long distance runners and the fi rst two editions were held on what is now known of as a ‘traditional’ course in Alnwick, Great Britain.

At the inaugural edition, Ireland’s Catherina McKiernan defeated Spain’s Julia Vaquero and Romania’s Elena Fidatov for the individual title while Paulo Guerra won his fi rst of four individual titles in the senior men’s race ahead of compatriot Domingos Castro with the pair also helping Portugal to the team title.

This event looked very diff erent in 1994 with the programme made up solely of the two senior races but it has evolved over the years with U20 races included for the fi rst time in 1997, followed by the U23 category in 2006. The latest addition to the programme was the mixed relay in 2017.

INSIDE TRACK | 33

Multiple winnersThe fi rst European Athletics Championships held under the auspices of the European Athletic Association in 1971 was a notable one for Janis Lusis as the Soviet javelin thrower became the fi rst athlete to win four successive titles in the championships history.

His teammate Nadezhda Chizhova followed suit in the shot put at the 1974 European Championships in Rome where she became the fi rst woman to win four titles. Chizhova also won fi ve European indoor titles in the 1970s, an opportunity obviously not aff orded to Lusis.

Valeriy Borzov eventually surpassed Chizhova’s title haul with 11 individual European titles in total. As well as winning a

sprint double in Helsinki 1971 followed by a third 100m title in Rome 1974, the Ukrainian also won seven European indoor titles over 50m and 60m between 1970 and 1977 in the famous red vest of the USSR.

With the European Athletics Indoor Championships held annually until 1991, Helena Fibingerova won an unmatched eight titles in the shot put between 1973 and 1985.

Other notable multiple champions included three-time Olympic champion Viktor Saneyev, with the Soviet athlete winning six European indoor triple jump titles between 1970 and 1977, while the diminutive Dutch sprinter Nelli Cooman won six 60m titles between 1985 and 1994, including a world record performance of 7.00 in Madrid in 1986.

CELEBRATING 50 YEARS

34 | INSIDE TRACK

Multiple winnersThe fi rst European Athletics Championships held under the auspices of the European Athletic Association in 1971 was a notable one for Janis Lusis as the Soviet javelin thrower became the fi rst athlete to win four successive titles in the championships history.

His teammate Nadezhda Chizhova followed suit in the shot put at the 1974 European Championships in Rome where she became the fi rst woman to win four titles. Chizhova also won fi ve European indoor titles in the 1970s, an opportunity obviously not aff orded to Lusis.

Valeriy Borzov eventually surpassed Chizhova’s title haul with 11 individual European titles in total. As well as winning a

sprint double in Helsinki 1971 followed by a third 100m title in Rome 1974, the Ukrainian also won seven European indoor titles over 50m and 60m between 1970 and 1977 in the famous red vest of the USSR.

With the European Athletics Indoor Championships held annually until 1991, Helena Fibingerova won an unmatched eight titles in the shot put between 1973 and 1985.

Other notable multiple champions included three-time Olympic champion Viktor Saneyev, with the Soviet athlete winning six European indoor triple jump titles between 1970 and 1977, while the diminutive Dutch sprinter Nelli Cooman won six 60m titles between 1985 and 1994, including a world record performance of 7.00 in Madrid in 1986.

Janis Lusis was the fi rst athlete to win four European Championships titles in the same event

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NEWS IN BRIEF

Road, track and field legends sadly leave the stageGerman race walker Hartwig Gauder (pictured

below) died of a heart attack on 22 April at the age of 65. Gauder swept all the major titles in the 50km race walk in a seven-year period in the 1980s. After winning the Olympic title in Moscow in 1980 for East Germany, Gauder added the European title to his collection in Stuttgart in 1986 before winning the world title in Rome the following year.

Latvian javelin great Janis Lusis (pictured opposite) died on 29 April at the age of 80. Lusis won four European titles for the Soviet Union between 1962 and 1971, becoming the first athlete to win at four successive events. He claimed the full set of Olympic medals winning bronze in Tokyo in 1964, gold in Mexico City in 1968 and silver in Munich in 1972. He also set two world records.

1952 Olympic javelin champion Dana Zatopkova died on 13 March at the age of 97. Zatopkova won gold in Helsinki before returning to the podium at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome where she won silver at the age of 37. She won back-to-back titles at the European Athletics Championships, getting gold in 1954 before taking the title again in 1958 with a world record of 56.02m.

Italy’s 1984 European indoor 800m champion Donato Sabia died from coronavirus (Covid-19) on 8 April at the age of 56.

Sabia, a stalwart of Italian 4x400m teams, reached the Olympic 800m final in 1984 and 1988 and set a world 500m best of 1:00.08 in 1984. It remains the fastest time by a European runner at this distance.

European Athletics has connected fans of the sport with many of the biggest names and personalities in continental athletics courtesy of a new weekly Instagram Live series called #AtHomeWith, regularly attracting more than 10,000 viewers per episode.

The series is presented by Great Britain’s 2016 European long jump silver medallist Jazmin Sawyers and guests so far have included Sandra Perkovic and Niklas Kaul and reigning world indoor champion Ivana Spanovic.

European Athletics connects with Instagram Live

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