50 YEARS YOUNG Special feature: European Athletics celebrates fi ve decades of highlights and memorable performances
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NEWSLETTER OF
JULY 2020
50 YEARS YOUNG
Special feature: European Athletics
celebrates five decades of highlights
and memorable performances
• COMPETITION NEWS
• 2020 INDOOR SEASON
• CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
• MILESTONES IN WOMEN’S ATHLETICS
WELCOME MESSAGE
Testing times and
lights in the tunnel
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 suffered 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 Office 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 find 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 offer 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 financial 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
INSIDE TRACK | 03
12,777 STORES COUNTRIES 48 13.5 CUSTOMERS MILLION DAILY
European Athletics
marks big milestone Scan to view 50th Anniversary
social media campaign
The coronavirus pandemic has decimated the European Athletics unveiled a major social media
international athletics calendar but there is still campaign. This will be rolled out across all digital
plenty to celebrate in our sport and especially platforms over the next six months in celebration of
European Athletics 50th Anniversary. the governing body reaching its Golden Jubilee.
The organisation was founded on 6 November 1970, The campaign looks back at 50 great moments
formally coming to light on the opening day of the of the past five decades and celebrates the
first European Athletic Association Congress in Paris. achievements of the greatest European athletes.
The Congress opened with the encouraging words There will be historic and memorable moments
of the Marquess of Exeter, President of what was from major European competitions from the
then known as the International Amateur Athletic Helsinki 1971 European Athletics Championships
Federation, sent by telegram: “Best wishes for the all the way through to the Glasgow 2019 European
meeting and the future of the European Athletic Athletics Indoor Championships.
Association.”
It will augment other celebrations planned for later
Fifty years later, digital communications have taken in the year closer to the date of the actual founding
the place of telegrams and, fittingly, in May 2020 of the continental governing body for athletics.
CEO: Christian Milz Co-ordination: Design, Production, Print:
Rob Faulkner & Biljana Danicic SportBusiness Communications
Office: European Athletics Communication Gautam House, 1-3 Shenley Ave, Middx,
Avenue Louis-Ruchonnet 16 Department HA4 6BP, UK
CH-1003 Lausanne Phone +41 (0)21 313 43 57 Phone +44 (0)1494 728842
European Athletics Switzerland media@european-athletics.org Phil.Savage@sbcoms.com,
Association Européenne d’Athlétisme Phone +41 (0)21 313 43 50 Pensord Press, UK
Fax +41 (0)21 313 43 51 Text, Photos:
President: Svein Arne Hansen
office@european-athletics.org Biljana Danicic, Rob Faulkner, Bill Glad, Follow us:
Vice Presidents: www.european-athletics.org Dobromir Karamarinov, Steven Mills, Facebook.com/EuropeanAthletics
Dobromir Karamarinov Phil Minshull (editor), Christian Milz, @euroathletics
Cherry Alexander Inside Track is published by European Phil Savage, Getty Images, YouTube/European Athletics
05 | Varhanik
Libor INSIDE TRACK Athletics SportBusiness Communications Instagram.com/europeanathletics
2020 INDOOR SEASON
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.
06 | INSIDE TRACK
Sweden’s Armand
Duplantis soars to a
world pole vault record
of 6.18m in Glasgow
The countdown is on for Torun 2021
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.
INSIDE TRACK | 07
Gold medals go to
familiar faces in Lisbon
Record fourth successive wins for Can and Ingebrigtsen
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.
08 | INSIDE TRACK
SPAR EUROPEAN CROSS COUNTRY CHAMPIONSHIPS
Can was racing for the first time in almost Fitwi and Moller shine in Permit Meetings
five months after a calf tear ended her Once again, a series of European Athletics
summer season prematurely but showed Cross Country Permit Meetings took place
little sign of that injury as she went to the across Scandinavia and western Europe,
front at around two kilometres, eventually often giving runners a chance to gauge their
winning by 15 seconds as she covered a preparations for the SPAR European Cross
demanding and undulating 8.3km course in Country Championships.
26:52.
The unofficial stars of the series were
Ingebrigtsen was even more dominant, Germany’s Samuel Fitwi and Denmark’s
crossing the line after 6.3km of very Anna Emilie Moller. Fitwi just missed out
challenging terrain in 18:20 to win by 38 on the individual medals in Lisbon but
seconds in his final race before officially clearly worked hard over the next six weeks,
graduating into the senior ranks. However, winning over 9.5km in the Belgian town of
the biggest margin of victory came in the Hannut on 19 January against a high quality
women’s U23 race when Denmark’s Anna field that included home favourite Soufiane
Emilie Moller won in 20:30 putting 39 Bouchikhi and past winner Andy Vernon
seconds between herself and her nearest from Great Britain.
rival over the 6.3km course.
Moller gave a glimpse of the terrific form
Jimmy Gressier inadvertently became she displayed in Lisbon by producing
a social media sensation after his now another runaway victory over 8km at the
infamous finish line celebrations went badly Warandecross in Tilburg on 24 November,
wrong in 2018. The effervescent Frenchman triumphing by 31 seconds. There was also
opted for a more modest celebration as home success in the senior men’s 10km for
the finish line approached this time as he Mike Foppen in 30:01.
finished his career in the U23 ranks by
winning his third consecutive individual and Dublin ready to go
team titles, covering the 8.3km course in Despite the coronavirus pandemic having
24:17. devastated the international athletics
calendar, one of European Athletics’ major
Unlike the rest of her fellow individual gold competitions hasn’t currently been affected:
medallists from 2018, defending women’s the Fingal-Dublin 2020 SPAR European Cross
OPPOSITE
U20 champion Nadia Battocletti didn’t have Country Championships. Moller won the
matters all her own way. It was only on women’s U23 race by
the steep descent in the final few hundred It is expected to take place as planned on 39 seconds
metres that the Italian was able to put some 13 December in the grounds of the National
BELOW
distance between herself and Slovenia’s Sports Centre Campus in Blanchardstown, Gressier makes it three
Klara Lukan as Battocletti won by three situated in the north-west of the Irish in a row completing a
seconds in 13:58 over the 4.3km course. capital. hat trick of individual
and team titles
INSIDE TRACK | 09
EUROPEAN ATHLETICS TEAM CHAMPIONSHIPS
One year to go until
Minsk 2021
World’s premier team competition awarded to the Belarusian
capital for the first time
LEFT
Minsk has been a
regular staging post
in the European
Athletics calendar
and hosted the first
edition of The Match
Europe v USA in 2019
Many of Europe’s top athletes will once again in June last year, and then The Match Europe v USA
make their way to Minsk next year when the in September.
Belarusian capital plays host to the 2021 European
Athletics Team Championships Super League. Both competitions drew enthusiastic and near-
capacity crowds to the 22,000-seater Dinamo
The competition is set to take place on 19-20 June National Olympic Stadium. Similar attendances are
and will bring together reigning champions Poland anticipated for the world’s premier international
along with France, Germany, Great Britain, Italy, team competition next summer, which has been
Spain and Ukraine as well as Portugal and hosts slimlined down from 12 nations and will take place
Belarus. across two days as opposed to three in 2021.
This will be the third time in as many years that The 2021 European Athletics Team Championships
one of European Athletics’ leading competitions Second League will be in Valmiera, Latvia while
will be staged in Minsk, following two innovative next year’s Third League will be in Nicosia, Cyprus.
and well-received events last year: the inaugural The venue for the 2021 First League will be
DNA competition, as part of the European Games decided at the Executive Board meeting on 23 July.
10 | INSIDE TRACK INSIDE TRACK | 10Ignite your BLUE.
COUNCIL UPDATE
Council confirms key
changes to calendar date
The European Athletics Council met via video London, Great Britain for the third successive time in
conference on 7-8 May and took a number of key conjunction with the Night of the 10,000m PBs which
decisions about those of its competitions that have takes place at the Parliament Hill Athletics Track in
been affected by the coronavirus pandemic. the north-west of the British capital.
European Athletics U18 Championships: this was European Mountain Running Championships: the
postponed from 2020 to 2021 and Rieti, Italy will competition will not now take place in 2020. Cinfaes,
continue as the host. The Executive Board in June Portugal remains the host venue and the rearranged
confirmed at the championships will take place from date has been confirmed for 3 July 2021.
26-29 August 2021.
The Match Europe v USA 2021: this event will not
European Throwing Cup: the 2020 edition had take place as scheduled in Minsk, Belarus and has
been cancelled prior to the Council meeting and the been cancelled due to calendar congestion next year.
competition was also reallocated to Leiria, Portugal The next edition of The Match will be in 2023 in the
for three consecutive years. It will be staged at the USA, as originally planned.
same venue through until 2023 and the 2021 edition
is scheduled to be held on 13-14 March. In addition, the European Athletics Coronavirus
Task Force is continuously monitoring the individual
European 10,000m Cup: the 2020 edition was country restrictions in place across the continent and
cancelled but the 2021 edition will be staged in each country’s exit from lockdown.
12 | INSIDE TRACKEXECUTIVE 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
European Athletics Executive Board Convention moves online
backs Black Lives Matter The 2020 European Athletics Convention, which
had been scheduled to take place in October this year
European Athletics has added its voice to many in Tallinn, Estonia, will be transformed into an online
others from across the sporting spectrum in e-Convention.
supporting the Black Lives Matter movement.
The Executive Board adopted this measure due to the
In his opening statement to the European Athletics continued uncertainty surrounding travel between
Executive Board meeting held by videoconference many countries in Europe caused by the coronavirus
on 10 June, European Athletics Interim President, pandemic, and the possibility that some Member
Dobromir Karamarinov commented: “The world Federations may still not to be able to attend in
has been rocked by the events that have occurred in person.
the USA these past weeks since the death of George
Floyd on 25 May and athletics has felt the impact The format and programme of the e-Convention is
of what has happened as much as any sport on the still to be established but organisers anticipate it will
planet. include all the main features of the conventions of
recent years.
“At European Athletics, we stand strongly behind
our Code of Ethics that states “there shall be no Taking advantage of the increased connectivity and
discrimination in athletics on the basis of race, use of technology which has been apparent during
sex, ethnic origin, colour, culture, religion, political the lockdown, the Executive Board also approved a
opinion, marital status, sexual orientation or any series of workshops with its Member Federations
unfair or other irrelevant factor. entitled: ‘Member Federations and European
Athletics’ Leaders e-Meetings 2020’.
“Now, more than ever, we must take notice and work
together with our athletes and Member Federations The Convention in 2021 will take place in Lausanne,
to make sure that we live up to these words.” Switzerland.
INSIDE TRACK | 13COMPETITION NEWS
Paris 2020 European
Athletics Championships
cancelled
Difficult decision taken in light of global coronavirus pandemic
The Paris 2020 European Athletics European Athletics and the Paris 2020 LOC
Championships, which had been scheduled had previously been evaluating options
to take place at the Charlety Stadium from whereby this year’s championships could
25-30 August was sadly cancelled on 23 go ahead as planned and a feasibility study
April. Preparations were well underway to had been initiated once the seriousness of
make it one of the highlights of the entire the global coronavirus pandemic became
summer sporting calendar thus making the apparent. All the parties involved in the
cancelation doubly difficult. project were subsequently informed of the
ABOVE decision to cancel after the LOC Executive
The Paris 2020 The decision to cancel the championships Committee meeting.
European Athletics
– the first time the European Athletics
Championships was
due to take place in
Championships have ever been formally The difficult decision was made after
the Charlety Stadium cancelled as the 1942 edition had not assessing all associated risks in staging the
been awarded before World War II championships in the context of the current
OPPOSITE broke out – was taken by the Paris 2020 situation as well as the prevailing restrictions
The championships Local Organising Committee (LOC) and on mass gatherings in France. An evaluation
was due to conclude
French Athletics Federation (FFA) at an made by the FFA Medical Commission was
with the decathlon
1500m, which would
extraordinary LOC Executive Committee also taken into account by the LOC Executive
have featured world meeting. This was held following an earlier Committee when considering the impact
record-holder Kevin meeting between the relevant French on spectators and accredited persons who
Mayer public authorities. would attend the championships.
14 | INSIDE TRACKEuropean Athletics Interim President,
Dobromir Karamarinov said on the day of
Munich 2022 now on the horizon
the announcement: “We had hoped in these
troubled times to offer European athletes Following the decision to cancel this year’s European
a major event to aim for at the end of this Athletics Championships, attention now turns to Munich
summer. Unfortunately, we were informed where preparations are already advanced for the next
by the LOC and French Athletics Federation edition in 2022.
that they were no longer able to proceed with
delivering the championships this August and These championships will once again be part of the
were forced to cancel the event. successful multi-sport European Championships,
with athletics being staged alongside the European
“While we regret announcing the Championships of other major sports. Athletics will
cancellation of our European Athletics take place from 15-21 August in the city’s iconic Olympic
Championships, it is worth reiterating that Stadium, which hosted the 1972 Olympic Games and the
in these unprecedented times the health 2002 European Athletics Championships.
and safety of all athletics’ stakeholders
including athletes, fans, officials, partners In March, owing to the incapacity of European Athletics
and everyone connected with the sport is President Svein Arne Hansen following his stroke earlier
paramount. We will always do what is best in the month, European Athletics Vice President and
for the members of our athletics family and Executive Board member Libor Varhaník took over as
the wider public.” chair of the European Championships 2022 Board.
INSIDE TRACK | 15Also
for
go-getters.
16 | INSIDE TRACKSTATE OF OUR SPORT
Looking to the future
European Athletics CEO Christian Milz looks at our post-pandemic sport
Probably the most over-used – but nevertheless As an organisation European Athletics is financially
appropriate – phrase of the past few months has sound, thanks to many years of good planning
been “living in unprecedented times”. The arrival of and financial prudence, and we are hopeful
COVID-19 in our lives has forced us to re-evaluate that many of the events postponed in 2020
our lifestyles, our habits, our working practices and will now take place in 2021.
our view of sport.
European Athletics’ main function during
As the world shut down, so did sporting events, these difficult times must be the support
thus allowing us a rare and valuable moment of of our Member Federations, who are in
introspection into the role sport plays in today’s touch daily with the athletics grassroots
society. across Europe.
Can athletes, deprived of events, keep motivated As well as direct support via the
and train at home properly? Can sports events Member Federation Support
without fans really be considered true sports events? Programme, the federations will
What is the value of sport on TV without fans? How also have the chance to share
can we give value to our sponsors outside of events? knowledge and best practice
As we grappled with these questions one thing was via the European Athletics
clear: we all missed sport in our lives. Leaders e-Meetings, making
good use of technology to
To replace these missing live events we came up with keep in contact with each
virtual jump-off s, live athlete chats on social media, other, share good practice
virtual training sessions, and we raided our vaults to and other experiences
provide content to those deprived of their beloved without resorting to physical
sport. I am glad to say that European Athletics travelling.
played its part.
The past few months have
Using President Hansen’s mantra of “athletics in every shown us new ways of working
home and on every phone” we have been celebrating and prompted us to take a fresh
our 50th Anniversary with 50 Golden Moments on look at the business model of
social media, we are revamping our YouTube channel our sport. Yet at the heart of our
using our video archive and we will now begin work sport lies the athletes, the fans
on the convention this October, which will take the and the live event itself and,
form of an e-convention due to the fact that there is thankfully as I write this column,
still great uncertainty about travel. I feel optimistic that before long
these will all return to be part of
Despite the huge disappointment over the our lives once again.
cancellation of the Paris 2020 European Athletics
Championships, our flagship biennial event, the Christian Milz
athletics outlook in Europe remains positive. European Athletics CEO
INSIDE TRACK | 1718 | INSIDE TRACK
CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
Scan to watch European Athletics
50 Golden Moments launch video
European Athletics’
50th Anniversary
A celebration of the first five decades
CLOCKWISE FROM RIGHT
Norwegian 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
19 | INSIDE
INSIDE TRACK
TRACK
| 19CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
The five presidents
European Athletics has grown and prospered over 50
years under the guidance of five remarkable presidents.
ADRIAAN PAULEN
Nationality:
NETHERLANDS
President:
1970 - 1976
HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCY
The 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 first president of what was then the European
Athletic Association in 1970. DID YOU KNOW ?
Paulen was an international 400m and 800m
He stood down in 1976 to take over as IAAF President, a position runner, competing in the 1920, 1924 and 1928
he held until 1981. Paulen died in 1985 at the age of 82. Olympic Games. He was also a notable member
of the Dutch resistance during World War II.
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.
HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCY
No 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:
ARTHUR GOLD “His crowning achievement was presiding over the European
Nationality: AA from 1976 to 1987. In that post his diplomatic skills,
GREAT BRITAIN & NORTHERN IRELAND encyclopaedic knowledge and a mission to protect the sport
President: from the dangers of drug use and over-commercialisation
1976 - 1987 made him one of the most respected figures in the sport.”
20 | INSIDE TRACKCARL-OLAF HOMEN
Nationality:
FINLAND
President:
1987 - 1999
HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCY
Homen’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.
DID YOU KNOW ?
“Athletics in Europe and worldwide – even though the EAA is
Homen was an outstanding distance and
now stronger financially, administratively, and sportingly than cross country runner and is a member of the
in the past – has to deal with new challenges and problems,” University of Delaware Hall of Fame. He was also
he said in 1998, showing both his successes and his vision. Finland’s Defence Minister from 1975-76.
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.
HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCY
Wirz 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.
HANSJÖRG WIRZ
Nationality: He strengthened European Athletics’ financial position
SWITZERLAND through improved TV contracts and was the instigator of the
multi-sport European Championships. He retired after 16
President:
years in the role, the longest-serving President to date.
1999 - 2015
SVEIN ARNE HANSEN
Nationality:
NORWAY
President:
2015 -
HIGHLIGHTS OF HIS PRESIDENCY
Hansen’s achievements during his first 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 profile of the sport in Europe.
“Almost everyone in our sport is now comfortable with 21st DID YOU KNOW ?
century discussions like how to use social media, commercial Hansen is a stamp dealer by profession but was
products and services and even new formats for our also the meeting director of the illustrious Bislett
events and competition such as the multi-sport European Games in Oslo for 24 years, from 1985-2009.
Championships or our DNA project,” said Hansen last year.
INSIDE TRACK | 21Milestones in European
women’s athletics
1974 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.
1978 USSR’s Tatyana Zelentsova won the first European
Athletics Championships 400m hurdles gold
medal in Prague in a world record of 54.89.
Tatyana Zelentsova
1982 The women’s 3000m is contested for the first time at the European Athletics
Indoor Championships and won by Italy’s Agnese Possamai.
1982 The marathon is added to the European Athletics Championships women’s programme and
the first champion, around the streets of Athens, is Portugal’s Rosa Mota, who was to win the
event on three successive occasions.
1986 Distance running legend Ingrid Kristiansen from Norway wins
the first 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.
1987 Austria’s Erika Strasser is elected as the first ever woman
member of the European Athletics Council.
1990 The women’s triple jump is contested for the first 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.
Mari Cruz Diaz
1991 Erika Strasser becomes the first ever woman to be elected as a European Athletics Vice
President.
1995 Polish legend Irena Szewinska is also elected at the Congress in Paris and joins Erika Strasser
on the European Athletics Council.
22 | INSIDE TRACKCELEBRATING 50 YEARS
1996 The first women’s pole vault
at a European Athletics Indoor
Championships is won by Iceland’s
Vala Flosadottir in Stockholm.
1998 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.
Vala Flosadottir
2006 Belarus’ Alesya Turava takes the first European Athletics Championships
women’s 3000m steeplechase gold medal in Gothenburg.
2009 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.
2013 The first ever Women in World Athletics Seminar is held in Solihull, Great
Britain, and hosted by British Athletics and European Athletics.
2013 European Athletics and 37 Member Federations reaffirm their commitment to
gender equality by signing the Brighton Declaration on Women and Sport at
the European Athletics Congress in Skopje.
2018 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.
2019 The Congress in Prague witnesses a record
five women elected to the European Athletics
Council, including its second female Vice
President Cherry Alexander from Great
Ines Henriques Britain.
2019 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 five of each gender. The next ‘Election Congress’ will see
the highest number of women ever elected to the European Athletics Council.
INSIDE TRACK | 23Highlights of the first fifty
years
In the first 2020 issue of Inside Track, we take an in-depth look at
key moments from the first 25 years of European Athletics
THIS PAGE
CLOCKWISE
FROM LEFT
East 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
OPPOSITE
France’s 4x100m
quartet at the 1990
European Athletics
Championships in
Split
24 | INSIDE TRACKCELEBRATING 50 YEARS
World records set at the European Championships in Prague with 48.94. This was
Championships followed by two more world records in Athens 1982:
Three world records were set and another equalled 3:19.05 in the 4x400m and 48.15 in the 400m, which
at the 1986 European Athletics Championships in is still a championship record.
Stuttgart. One mark still stands nearly 35 years later.
Another barrier was broken by Tatyana Zelentsova
Yuriy Sedykh won his third successive title in the at the 1978 European Championships. The Soviet
hammer with a massive 86.74m against Soviet rival became the first athlete in history to break the
Sergey Litvinov whose silver medal-winning throw of 55-second barrier in the 400m hurdles, winning the
85.74m remains the fifth best in history. title in Prague in 54.89 and lowering her own mark
from 55.31. Zelentsova went on to coach Stepanova,
Great Britain’s Fatima Whitbread set a world javelin who succeeded her as world record-holder.
record of 77.44m in qualifying before winning
gold the next day in 76.32m – also in excess of Other world records were set in Athens in 1982 by
the previous record. Sedykh’s compatriot Marina Great Britain’s Daley Thompson with 8774 points in
Stepanova won the 400m hurdles in a world record the decathlon and West German high jumper Ulrike
of 53.32 aged 36. Meyfarth with 2.02m. Meyfarth was to clear another
world record of 2.03m at the 1983 European Cup in
Heike Drechsler sped to the 200m title in 21.71 London, where she was matched by her Soviet rival
equalling the world record set by fellow East German Tamara Bykova.
Marita Koch, who won not only six European titles in
her career but also broke three world records at the One of the most unexpected world records at a
European Championships in the process. European Athletics Championships came from the
French 4x100m quartet who clocked 37.79 at the
Koch became the first athlete ever to break 1990 edition in Split, breaking the record set by the
49 seconds in the 400m at the 1978 European USA at the 1984 Olympic Games.
INSIDE TRACK | 25Clean sweeps
The 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 different
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 final 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 TRACKCELEBRATING 50 YEARS
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.
Sebastian Coe in Stuttgart 1986,
after winning his first major
championship 800m title
INSIDE TRACK | 27Home successes
Yugoslavia won two gold medals on a memorable final
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 finished seventh
in her heat and only just qualified on time, taking full
advantage of a slow tactical final 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 first
attempt, which proved sufficient 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 finishing 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.
28 | INSIDE TRACKCELEBRATING 50 YEARS
LEFT
Ulf Timmermann
set the longest
standing European
Athletics Indoor
Championship
record with a
22.19m effort in
1988
OPPOSITE TOP
Yugoslavia’s
Dragutin Topic
won at his home
European Athletics
Championships
in Split
OPPOSITE
BOTTOM
Juha Vaatainen
won both 5000m
and 10,000m in
the 1971 European
Championships
Longest standing European The longest standing championship
Championship records record at the European Athletics Indoor
Two still-standing European Championships Championships goes back even further in
records were set in Prague 1978, surviving terms of antiquity.
12 subsequent championships across the
next 42 years. Competing under the Czechoslovakian flag,
Helena Fibingerova’s 1977 mark of 21.46m
East Germany’s Olaf Beyer upset Steve in the shot put in San Sebastian remains the
Ovett and Sebastian Coe in a memorable standard bearer.
800m contest and his time of 1:43.84
survived not only Coe but also the The longest standing record on the men’s
attentions of Denmark’s Wilson Kipketer, side is also in the shot put and belongs to
with the pair winning European titles over East Germany’s Ulf Timmermann with his
two laps of the track in 1986 and 2002 effort of 22.19m from 1988. BELOW
respectively and holding the world record in Scan to watch
Harald Schmid
tandem between 1979 and 2010. Two championship records from the
setting his record
European Athletics U20 Championships
Martti Vainio’s winning time in the 10,000m date back as far as 1973 when the event
of 27:30.99 from 1978 has proved equally was staged in Duisberg, West Germany.
impregnable while three performances East German sprinter Barbel Eckert’s 22.85
from Athens 1982, including Harald in the 200m and Sweden’s Inger Knutsson
Schmid’s 400m hurdles time of 47.48, have who won the 1500m in 4:07.47 remain intact
yet to be surpassed. after nearly five decades.
INSIDE TRACK | 2910 or more medals years later with bronze in the 400m and 4x400m.
Despite taking place on a biennial cycle since 2012,
Poland’s Irena Szewinska remains the only athlete in Thomas Wessinghage is the most bemedaled
history to win double-digit medals at the European athlete on the men’s side at the European Athletics
Athletics Championships. Indoor Championships with 12 medals in total,
including six gold medals between 1972 and 1983.
Szewinska won five gold medals along with one Wessinghage won the 1500m title four times
silver and four bronze medals in her venerable between 1975 and 1983 as well as two titles for
career, picking up medals in no less than six West Germany in the now discontinued 4x800m.
different events.
The most bemedaled athlete on the women’s side –
After winning three gold medals at the 1966 and with the most medals in a single event – at the
European Championships, Szewinska won a European Indoor Championships remains Helena
100/200m double at Rome 1974 and finished her Fibingerova with 11 medals in the shot put, eight
European Championships career in Prague four gold medals and three silvers.
Great Britain bucks the European Cup trend Colin Jackson won the 110m hurdles in 13.56 against
The Soviet Union and East Germany dominated a 2.9 m/s headwind while Kriss Akabusi handed
the early decades of the European Cup, in both Harald Schmid his first defeat in the 400m hurdles
the men’s and women’s competitions, but their in this competition since 1981. Gateshead concluded
hegemony was halted in 1989. with the hosts winning the men’s 4x400m, their first
of eight wins at the European Cup in the event.
For the first time in European Cup history, a
new nation stood on top of the podium as Great On the women’s side, East Germany accumulated
Britain & NI prevailed on home soil in the men’s nine titles from 10 editions of the European Cup
competition, winning with 115 points ahead of East between 1970 and 1989 although the Soviet Union
Germany and the Soviet Union, who had 103 and interrupted that streak in 1985 when they won in
101 points respectively. front of their home fans in Moscow.
Notable individual performances came from One of the East German heroines during this era
Linford Christie, who won the 100m - his third of was sprinter Marlies Gohr, who took six successive
13 individual wins at the European Cup - and Tom victories in both the 100m and 4x100m between
McKean, who took his third of four 800m wins. 1977 and 1987.
OPPOSITE
Great Britain’s Colin
Jackson won the 110m
hurdles at the European
Cup in 1989
THIS PAGE
Poland’s Irena Szewinska
remains the only
athlete in history to win
double-digit medals at
the European Athletics
Championships
30 | INSIDE TRACKCELEBRATING 50 YEARS
1989 in Gateshead was the most
pressure I was ever under in my
entire life. I was so relieved to get over
the final hurdle and win. If you find
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
INSIDE TRACK | 31Growth of the European Championships Championships in Helsinki where 1113 athletes
The 1978 European Athletics Championships took part.
in Prague was a milestone edition as it was the
first championships to attract more than 1000 Forty-eight nations were represented at the
competitors, with 1004 athletes competing at 2002 European Championships in Munich while
the Evzena Rosickeho Stadium. 50 have participated at the fi ve editions of
the European Championships since Barcelona
The changing political landscape following the 2010.
breakup of the Soviet Union and Yugoslavia, as
well as the addition of women’s events, has led The newest addition to the European Athletics
to further growth during the 1990s. family is Kosovo, which took part for the first
time at the 2016 European Championships in
From 33 nations taking part at the 1990 Amsterdam. This remains the best attended
European Championships in Split, the number edition of the European Championships to date
rose sharply to 44 nations at the 1994 European with 1457 athletes taking part.
32 | INSIDE TRACKCELEBRATING 50 YEARS
Bareclona 2010 was the
first European Athletics
Championships to
include 50 Member
Federations
Alnwick kicks off the European Cross At the inaugural edition, Ireland’s Catherina
Country Championships McKiernan defeated Spain’s Julia Vaquero and
While the roots of the World Cross Country Romania’s Elena Fidatov for the individual
Championships can be traced back to the turn title while Paulo Guerra won his first of four
of the 20th century with the first staging of the individual titles in the senior men’s race ahead
International Cross Country Championships of compatriot Domingos Castro with the pair
in 1903, its continental counterpart has so far also helping Portugal to the team title.
been in existence for less than three decades.
This event looked very different in 1994 with the
The SPAR European Cross Country programme made up solely of the two senior
Championships was added to the competition races but it has evolved over the years with
calendar in 1994 to incentivise European long U20 races included for the first time in 1997,
distance runners and the first two editions were followed by the U23 category in 2006. The latest
held on what is now known of as a ‘traditional’ addition to the programme was the mixed relay
course in Alnwick, Great Britain. in 2017.
INSIDE TRACK | 33CELEBRATING 50 YEARS
Janis Lusis was
the first athlete to
win four European
Championships
titles in the same
event
Multiple winners sprint double in Helsinki 1971 followed by a
The first European Athletics Championships third 100m title in Rome 1974, the Ukrainian
held under the auspices of the European also won seven European indoor titles over
Athletic Association in 1971 was a notable one 50m and 60m between 1970 and 1977 in the
for Janis Lusis as the Soviet javelin thrower famous red vest of the USSR.
became the first athlete to win four successive
titles in the championships history. With the European Athletics Indoor
Championships held annually until 1991,
His teammate Nadezhda Chizhova followed Helena Fibingerova won an unmatched eight
suit in the shot put at the 1974 European titles in the shot put between 1973 and 1985.
Championships in Rome where she became
the first woman to win four titles. Chizhova Other notable multiple champions included
also won fi ve European indoor titles in the three-time Olympic champion Viktor Saneyev,
1970s, an opportunity obviously not afforded with the Soviet athlete winning six European
to Lusis. indoor triple jump titles between 1970 and
1977, while the diminutive Dutch sprinter Nelli
Valeriy Borzov eventually surpassed Cooman won six 60m titles between 1985 and
Chizhova’s title haul with 11 individual 1994, including a world record performance of
European titles in total. As well as winning a 7.00 in Madrid in 1986.
34 | INSIDE TRACKNEWS IN BRIEF
European Athletics connects
with Instagram Live
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.
Road, track and field legends sadly leave the stage
German race walker Hartwig Gauder (pictured 1952 Olympic javelin champion Dana Zatopkova
below) died of a heart attack on 22 April at the age died on 13 March at the age of 97. Zatopkova won
of 65. Gauder swept all the major titles in the 50km gold in Helsinki before returning to the podium at
race walk in a seven-year period in the 1980s. After the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome where she won
winning the Olympic title in Moscow in 1980 for East silver at the age of 37. She won back-to-back titles at
Germany, Gauder added the European title to his the European Athletics Championships, getting gold
collection in Stuttgart in 1986 before winning the in 1954 before taking the title again in 1958 with a
world title in Rome the following year. world record of 56.02m.
Latvian javelin great Janis Lusis (pictured Italy’s 1984 European indoor 800m champion
opposite) died on 29 April at the age of 80. Lusis Donato Sabia died from coronavirus (Covid-19) on 8
won four European titles for the Soviet Union April at the age of 56.
between 1962 and 1971, becoming the first athlete
to win at four successive events. He claimed the Sabia, a stalwart of Italian 4x400m teams, reached
full set of Olympic medals winning bronze in Tokyo the Olympic 800m final in 1984 and 1988 and set a
in 1964, gold in Mexico City in 1968 and silver in world 500m best of 1:00.08 in 1984. It remains the
Munich in 1972. He also set two world records. fastest time by a European runner at this distance.
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