State of the Sport – Director General Update – So much has happened in the sport, since my last update on March 20th.

Welcome again to another of my regular updates and although the majority of track and field athletes have transferred their focus from the indoor to the outdoor season, as one prominent television professional recently told me „there is no off-season in Athletics“ and I can certainly agree with him on that one!

So much has happened in the sport, since my last update on March 20th.

We had a Dutch victory at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Mombassa, Kenya. Germany and Turkey emerged victorious at the European Cup 10,000m in Ferrara, Italy, there were record entries at the London and Paris Marathons, as well as a host of other huge mass participation events in cities throughout Europe, underlining our core messages of health, fitness, energy and a sport for life.

In fact, the preliminary figures from April 2007 alone, suggest that the road racing element of our sport is growing at a staggering rate and over 600,000 Europeans took part in road races, in April, consolidating our sport as the number two participation sport in the world, behind only the might of football.

On Saturday last, I was one of 15,000 who took part in the Lausanne 20km, and although my time certainly won’t trouble the record keepers, the sight of so many runners of all shapes and sizes, being supported by their families and friends really showed how important our sport is, to so many people.

20th European Athletics Congress, Cannes

Perhaps more importantly from a strategical position, we hosted a very successful European Athletics Congress in Cannes, France, where we received overwhelming support from the member federations of Europe for our proposed competition restructure, which, although much work remains to be completed, should pave the way for the modernisation of our sport.

Led by our President, Hansjörg Wirz, a small expert group has been working for some time on the way forward for European Athletics, and, with widespread consultation with our stakeholders, has initiated a number of ideas, designed to make the sport more exciting, coherent, and easier to understand.

Chief among these, was the agreement to host a European Athletics Championships every two ydiack_cannesears, starting from 2012 at the earliest, although this decision will depend principally on our television partner, (the European Broadcasting Union) who is our main financial partner.

What is now known as the European Cup will be transformed into the European Athletics Team Championships from 2009 at the earliest, which, we hope, will result in a far broader interest in the event from a larger number of countries, along with a more exciting competition.

The congress also elected a new Council, which saw 10 new names added including the CEO’s of the last two major championships, a former Olympic Champion, a former European Champion and a Meeting Director of a Golden League event!

The average age of the Council is now 10 years younger than the previous one and there is certainly a new imputes of energy and desire to drive the sport forward for the future.

The location of our congress in Cannes, was just a good javelin throw from the IAAF Offices in Monte Carlo, and with the presence of President Lamine Diack and General Secretary, Pierre Weiss at all of our Council Meetings and the Congress itself, our relationship with the world governing body could not be better.

The IAAF is set for its own congress in August and we are confident of a further successful, mutually beneficial relationship, when it’s new Council is elected in Osaka.

Sponsors:

As we are beginning a new four-year term with a new Council, we are also at the re-negotiating stage with a number of our sponsors. The feedback from our existing partners has been excellent and it is pleasing to know that they see a huge value in communicating their brands through our sport.

The sponsors have told us, that, sponsoring European Athletics, with its brand values of health, youth, excitement and fair play, adds immense value to their brands, and I confident that we will be announcing new four year agreements over the summer months.

Marketing strategy:

In order to be of greater assistance to the Local Organising Committees, (LOCs) who do such a fantastic job at organising our events, we have developed a new commercial marketing strategy, designed to make it easier for the LOC’s, and to give them greater opportunities, to attract sponsors for events across a larger number of categories.

The benefit of this system is already clear to see, as the Birmingham LOC for European Athletics Indoor Championships attracted nearly three quarters of a million euros in local sponsorship.

European Cup 10,000m

The Italian city of Ferrara in Italy, hosted a successful edition of the European Cup 10,000m on Easter Saturday which saw yet another surprise victory for a German over 10,000m when André Pollmächer added the European Cup 10,000m to the Championship title won by his team mate, Jan Fitschen, in Gothenburg last year.

Former World 5,000m record holder, Elvan Abeylegesse from Turkey, showed she has overcome much of her injury problems of recent times when she was an easy winner of the women’s event, ahead of SPAR European Cross Country Champion, Tetyana Holovchenko from Ukraine.

There are some encouraging signs in the standards of 10,000m running in Europe but the competition was undoubtedly affected by the long flights that went hand-in-hand with the World Cross Country Championships in Mombassa two weeks earlier. With next years World Cross Country Championships taking place in Edinburgh, Great Britain, I am sure this competition will attract a lot more of the top distance runners in Europe.

IAAF World Cross Country

The World Cross Country Championships went to a new venue when the 35th IAAF World Cross Country Championships took place in Mombasa, Kenya at the end of March.

Despite the recent warm spring temperatures in Europe, the conditions in Mombassa were more suited to the Africans, but there were nonetheless some very encouraging signs of a European revival, not least, with the victory in the women’s race of Lornah Kiplagat, who added this title to the one she won so convincingly on the roads of Debrecan, last October.

SPAR European Cross Country Champion, Mo Farah gave a positive sign for Europe distance runners with an impressive top 11 finish, while four further Europeans in the top 16 of the women’s race shows that the Africans may not have things there own way when the event returns to Europe, in Edinburgh next year.

The European Juniors struggled with the long travel and hot, humid conditions and this underlined the importance of the recent introduction a U23 event into the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.

Season ahead

The season ahead will be a very busy and exciting one as we move from the Race Walking Cup in Leamington, GBR, to SPAR European Cup in Munich, GER, from the Mountain Running in Cauterets, FRA, to the U23 Championships in Debrecen, HUN, and from Junior Championships in Hengelo, NED, to the Spar European Cross Country Championships in Toro, ESP, in December.

On top of this we will also have a comprehensive programme of European Cups in Track and Field, Combined Events and Clubs.

The picture is one of an exciting, dynamic, thriving sport, active in all countries across Europe.

Champions will be crowned, records will be broken, new stars will emerge and personal bests will be smashed and I look forward, like you, to following the action either at your local track, on the television or on the European Athletics website.

Here’s to a great season ahead!

Source:
European Athletics (EAA)
https://www.european-athletics.org/
EAA