2009 European Athletics Indoor Championship – One year to go – News – European Athletics (EAA)

With less than one year to the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Torino, a special press conference was held yesterday in host city Piedmont. This major European Athletics event will take place in the Oval Lingotto, one of the venues of the Winter Olympic Games in 2006.  

It will be the fourth time Italy has played host to the European Indoor Championships, following Milan (1978 and 1982) and Genova (1992), however the beautiful northern Italian area of Torino boasts a great tradition of hosting major sport events, from the successful edition of the Winter Olympic Games in 2006 to the Winter University Games in 2007.

Key sport authorities surrounding the event were in attendance at the press launch, including Italian Athletics Federation (FIDAL) and LOC President, Franco Arese, Torino Mayor Sergio Chiamparino, Italian Sport Minister Giovanna Melandri and an array of past Italian athletics legends like Olympic and World 20km Walk Champion Maurizio Damilano, and Livio Berruti 200m Olympic Champion in Rome 1960, attended the "launch" of Torino 2009.

According to Damilano, who is the President of the Regional Committee of Fidal Piemonte, the European Indoor Championships will be a successful event for Torino.

"The European Indoor Championships will return to Italy 17 years after Genova in 1992. The event will be broadcast in 60 countries and it will be a great opportunity to promote athletics in the school world", said Maurizio Damilano.

The special guest of the Torino 2009 press launch was Italian High Jump star Antonietta Di Martino, silver medallist at the World Outdoor Championships in Osaka and at the European Indoor Championships in Birmingham 2007.

Torino is a very special venue for Di Martino who set the first of her three Italian Outdoor records clearing 2.02 at the Memorial Primo Nebiolo.

"Torino 2009 will be a special competition for me. My relatives and friends will all come to support me" said Di Martino, who had just returned from the World Indoor Championships in Valencia where her performance was badly affected by a kidney colic during the qualifying round. Despite severe pain she managed to clear 1.93 but it was not enough to advance to the final.

"I felt pain during the competition. If I had qualified I could have not competed because of the pain. Now I am feeling better. I am not worried because I decided to take part in the indoor season just to break the monotony of a long period of training and to test my form for the outdoor season. I have not trained my technique yet" said Di Martino.   

The Italian Athletics Federation is expected to take part in Torino 2009 with a big team which will be a mix of experienced stars and young athletes looking for vital Championship experience from this major continental event.

Italian athletics fans hope that the Oval Lingotto which inspired Italian long track speed skater Enrico Fabris to gold medal success during the Winter Olympics in 2006 will bring new glory to Italian athletics, topping the six medals they claimed at the last edition of the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Birmingham in 2007.

News – European Athletics (EAA)