European Athletics Championships

In 1932, the International Amateur Athletic Federation (IAAF) created a special committee to explore the possibility of organising a European Championships in Athletics.

The following year, the IAAF Council appointed a permanent European Committee.

The Committee met for the first time in Budapest on 7 January 1934 and the first European Athletics Championships were staged later that year in Torino.

European Championships-Medalists(men) by event

European Championships-Medalists(women) by event

European Championships - Records

European Championships - Statistics

Editions

• [1] The championships took place in Vienna; Austria had been a province of Germany since the Anchluss in April 1938.

Ten great moments at the European Athletics Championships

 Any selection of 10 great moments in the history of a championship, especially one with an illustrious 82-year history like the European Athletics Championships, is a
subjective affair.

I think there will be broad agreement
on some of the feats listed below but,
inevitably, many people will feel that other
stunning achievements should have been
included instead of the ones I’ve chosen.
Space and a certain numerical symmetry
only permit me to list 10 ‘Great Moments’.
However, I hope that this list stimulates
some interesting debates among athletics
fans, whether you will be in Helsinki’s
Olympic Stadium or in front of your TV
screen at home.
Phil Minshull

1950 Fanny Blankers-Koen (NED)

1954 Vladimir Kuts (RUS)

At the 1954 Championships in Berne,the Soviet runner demonstrated that the legendary Emil Zatopek was human after all. In the 5000 m final, Kuts went straight into the lead and blazed through thefirst kilometre in a brutal 2:44.0, a pace which no one dared follow. He carried on
to win in a world record 13:56.6 to leave Britain’s Chris Chataway and Zatopek trailing in his wake, almost 100 metres in arrears.

1982 Urlike Meyfarth (FRG)

The high jump heroine of the Munich Olympics
a decade earlier returned to the top of
the podium at a major championships in 1982
with a world record of 2.02 m, adding
a centimetre to the standard set by Italy’s
Sara Simeoni in Prague four years earlier.

2002 Robert Korzeniowski (POL)

Arguably the greatest walker ever, Korzeniowski produced a 50 km world record of 3:36:39 around the streets of Munich in 2002, beating the former mark by almost a minute.

1962 Salvatore Morale (ITA)

The Italian, running in lane four, equalled the 400m hurdles world record of 49.2 at the 1962 Championships, one of three world records set in Belgrade 50 years ago. He won by more than a second from the silver medallist, Germany’s Jörg Neumann, and took half-a-second off his own European record set the year before.

1969 Nicole Duclos (FRA)

Collette Besson (FRA)

The French pair, joint European record holders at 52.0, had a terrific battle over one lap of the track at the 1969 Championships in Athens. Besson started the quicker andwas clearly in the lead coming into the home straightbut Duclos clawed back the advantage and edged in front in the final 10 metres. After a 20 minute delay,Duclos got the verdict but both women were given ashare of the world record of 51.7, although electronic timing showed that Duclos had clocked 51.77 to Besson’s 51.79.

1934 Matti Järvinen (FIN)

The bespectacled Finnish javelin thrower produced a world record of 76.66m
at the inaugural European Athletics Championships in 1934, which were held
in the Italian city of Torino. Curiously, when weighed, his javelin was actually 20 grammes heavier than the usual 800gm implement.

1978 Martia Koch (GDR)

The East German was the first runner to go under 49 seconds for 400m when she clocked 48.94 m at the 1978 Championships in Prague, winning from her compatriot Christina Brehmer by the massive margin of more than a second. Koch was to set another 400 m world record at the Championships four years later in Athens when she ran 48.16.

1986 Yuriy Sedykh (RUS)

The Soviet hammer thrower reached the phenomenal
distance of 86.74 m at the 1986 Championships inStuttgart, a world record which still stands at the time of writing. Four of his other five throws also went over 85 metres and he beat his compatriot andrival Sergey Litvinov by exactly a metre.

1980 Daley Thompson (GBR)

The British multievents exponent was
expected to have a close battle in the
1982 decathlon in Athens with his
German rival Jürgen Hingsen but, instead,
the 1980 Olympic champion won by
more than 200 points in a world record tally
of 8743 points

All-time medal table (1934–2014)

European Athletics Championships Rome 1974 Medal

Athletics European Championships Stuttgart 1986