The European Cup is a former athletics competition for European teams that was replaced by the European Team Championships starting in 2009. The European Cup saw most of the major nations of Europe compete. Originally known as the Bruno Zauli Cup, it first took place in 1965 in Stuttgart (men) and Kassel (women), Germany. Initially, the competition was a bi-annual event (tri-annual once); however, from 1993, it took place once every year.

History

The main idea of the cup, developed by Bruno Zauli, president of the European Committee of the International Association of Athletics Federations, was to create a competition for all European athletics federations, in which they would face each other in track and field events. Although Zauli died a few months before the launch of the first event, the competition has gone from strength to strength.

The competition always had different leagues through which countries had to progress. For the first twenty years, there were different groups (leagues) that took place at different times. Smaller nations, like Luxembourg and Switzerland, would compete in preliminary rounds, before larger countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, would join in the semi-finals. The top two countries from three semi-finals would enter into the final.

This formula was fairly successful; however, by 1983 the number of competitions that athletes were expected to compete in made it extremely difficult for countries to send their best team to each event. The format of the cup had to be changed so that each country in the whole cup competed on the same day.

The top league was named the Super League and contained eight male and eight female teams. The male and female teams were separate teams, which meant that the female team of one country could get relegated while their male counterpart would stay in the Super League as long as they had enough points. Below the Super League were the First and Second Leagues, which contained other European countries that did not qualify for the finals.

European Team Championships

In 2009, the competition took a new format, European Team Championships. There are now four leagues, which consist of 20 events for men and 20 for women. The Super League and the First League have 12 teams each, while the Second League and the Third League 8 and 14 respectively. Team scores are calculated by combination of men and women's points.

Scoring system and relegation

Countries scored points for their performance in each race/event: The winning athlete received 8 points for their country, and this then carried on so second would get 7 points, third 6 points, etc. In the case of an athlete that did not finish a race, was disqualified or did not record a mark (as the case may be), their country would receive zero points for that event.

The male and female team with the most points was declared the winner. The four winning teams from the 'Super League' (two male and two female) went on to compete as individual countries in the IAAF World Cup in Athletics.

Since 1983, the lowest scoring male, and the lowest scoring female teams in the 'Super League' were relegated down into the 'First League'. These were replaced by the highest scoring male and female teams from the 'First League'. This process was repeated for relegation/promotion from the second to the first league. This system allowed countries to progress, and for a wider range of athletes to compete against opposition they might not normally face.

League positions in 2009

The leagues for the 2009 competition were formed by combination of each country's men and women's performances in 2008. As the teams are 46, the winning team received 46 points, the second 45 and so on. The new leagues are:[1]

Super League
Country Pts
 Russia 1548
 Great Britain 1518
 Poland 1512
 Germany 1472
 Italy 1455
 Spain 1426.5
 France 1423.5
 Ukraine 1412.5
 Greece 1359.5
 Sweden 1309
 Czech Republic 1236
 Portugal 1222
First League
Country Pts
 Belarus 1217
 Slovenia 1211
 Romania 1182.5
 Turkey 1166
 Belgium 1139
 Hungary 1133
 Netherlands 1118
 Finland 1072.5
 Estonia 1035.5
  Switzerland 1032.5
 Serbia 1028.5
 Norway 974
Second League
Country Pts
 Ireland 971.5
 Bulgaria 947
 Croatia 942
 Latvia 933
 Slovakia 901
 Lithuania 839.5
 Austria 783
 Cyprus 749
Third League
Country Pts
 Moldova 722
 Israel 714
 Denmark 709.5
 Bosnia and Herzegovina 555.5
 Iceland 550.5
 Luxembourg 399.5
 Georgia 356
 Azerbaijan 332.5
 Montenegro 310.5
 Armenia 301.5
AASSE 280
 Albania 191
 Andorra 187
 Macedonia 164

Winners

Super League
Year Men Women Host City Host Country
1965 Soviet Union Soviet UnionStuttgart/Kassel West Germany
1967 Soviet Union Soviet UnionKiev Soviet Union
1970 East Germany East GermanyStockholm/Budapest Sweden/ Hungary
1973 Soviet Union East GermanyEdinburgh Great Britain
1975 East Germany East GermanyNice France
1977 East Germany East GermanyHelsinki Finland
1979 East Germany East GermanyTurin Italy
1981 East Germany East GermanyZagreb Yugoslavia
1983 East Germany East GermanyLondon Great Britain
1985 Soviet Union Soviet UnionMoscow Soviet Union
1987 Soviet Union East GermanyPrague Czechoslovakia
1989 Great Britain East GermanyGateshead Great Britain
1991 Soviet Union GermanyFrankfurt Germany
1993 Russia RussiaRome Italy
1994 Germany GermanyBirmingham Great Britain
1995 Germany RussiaVilleneuve d'Ascq France
1996 Germany GermanyMadrid Spain
1997 Great Britain RussiaMunich Germany
1998 Great Britain RussiaSaint Petersburg Russia
1999 Germany RussiaParis France
2000 Great Britain RussiaGateshead Great Britain
2001 Poland RussiaBremen Germany
2002 Great Britain RussiaAnnecy France
2003 France RussiaFlorence Italy
2004 Germany RussiaBydgoszcz Poland
2005 Germany RussiaFlorence Italy
2006 France RussiaMálaga Spain
2007 France RussiaMunich Germany
2008 Great Britain RussiaAnnecy France

Best performances

Below is a list of the events that took place at the championships, and what is the European Cup record, who set it, what country they represented and which year.

Men


100 m: 10.04 - Linford Christie, Great Britain 1996, 1997
200 m: 20.11 - Linford Christie, Great Britain, 1995
400 m: 44.75 - David Grindley, Great Britain, 1993
800 m: 1:44.28 - Wilson Kipketer, Denmark, 2002
1,500 m: 3:33.63 - José Manuel Abascal, Spain, 1983
3,000 m: 7:41.08 - Dieter Baumann, Germany, 1997
5,000 m: 13:21.68 - Salvatore Antibo, Italy, 1991
10,000 m: 27:32.85 - Fernando Mamede, Portugal, 1983
3,000 m Steeplechase: 8:13.32 - Mariano Scartezzini, Italy, 1981
110 m Hurdles: 13.10 - Colin Jackson, Great Britain, 1993
400 m Hurdles: 47.85 - Harald Schmid, West Germany, 1979, 1985
4 × 100 m Relay: 38.16 - Great Britain (Jason Gardener, Darren Campbell, Marlon Devonish, Julian Golding), 1999
4 × 400 m Relay: 2:59.46 - Great Britain (Roger Black, Jamie Baulch, Ewan Thomas, Mark Richardson), 1997


High Jump: 2.40 m - Patrik Sjöberg, Sweden, 1989
Pole Vault: 6.00 m - Radion Gataullin, Russia, 1993
=Long Jump: 8.38 - Robert Emmiyan, Soviet Union, 1987
=Long Jump: 8.38 - Kirill Sosunov, Russia, 1998
Triple Jump: 17.77 - Khristo Markov, Bulgaria, 1985
Shot put: 22.05 - Sergey Smirnov, Soviet Union, 1985
Hammer: 82.90 - Jüri Tamm, Soviet Union, 1985
Discus: 68.76 - Lars Riedel, Germany, 1995
Javelin: 92.41 - Aki Parviainen, Finland, 2001

Women


100 m: 10.77 - Ivet Lalova, Bulgaria 2004
200 m: 21.99 - Silke Gladisch, East Germany, 1987
=400 m: 48.60 - Marita Koch, East Germany, 1979
=400 m: 48.60 - Olga Vladykina, Soviet Union, 1985
800 m: 1:55.91 - Jarmila Kratachvilova, Czechoslovakia, 1985
1,500 m: 3:58.40 - Ravilya Agletdinova, Soviet Union, 1985
3,000 m: 8:35.32 - Zola Budd, Great Britain, 1985
5,000 m: 14:29.11 - Paula Radcliffe, Great Britain, 2004
10,000 m: 31:03.62 - Kathrin Ullrich, Germany, 1991
3,000 m Steeplechase: 9:35.95 - Cristina Casandra, Romania, 2005
110 m Hurdles: 12.47 - Cornelia Oschkenat, East Germany, 1987
400 m Hurdles: 53.38 - Yuliya Pechonkina, Russia, 2002
4 × 100 m Relay: 41.65 - East Germany (Silke Gladisch, Marita Koch, Ingrid Auerswald-Lange, Marlies Göhr), 1985
4 × 400 m Relay: 3:18.58 - Soviet Union (Olga Nazarova, Nadiya Olizarenko, Mariya Pinigina, Olga Vladykina), 1985


High Jump: 2.06m - Stefka Kostadinova, Bulgaria, 1985
Pole Vault: 4.75m - Monika Pyrek, Poland, 2006
Long Jump: 7.42 - Tatyana Kotova, Russia, 2002
Triple Jump: 14.98 - Tatyana Lebedeva, Russia, 2000
Shot put: 21.56 - Natalya Lisovskaya, Soviet Union, 1987
Hammer: 76.50 - Tatyana Lysenko, Russia, 2006
Discus: 73.90 - Diana Gansky, East Germany, 1987
Javelin: 70.20 - Christina Obergföll, Germany, 2007

Hosts

# Year A Final B Final
1 1965 West Germany Stuttgart (men), Kassel (women)
2 1967 Soviet Union Kiev
3 1970 Sweden Stockholm
4 1973 United Kingdom Edinburgh
5 1975 France Nice
6 1977 Finland Helsinki Sweden Gothenburg (men), Czechoslovakia Třinec (women)
7 1979 Italy Turin Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Karlovac (men), France Paris (women)
8 1981 Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia Zagreb Greece Athens (men), Italy Pescara (women)
9 1983 United Kingdom London Czechoslovakia Prague (men), Netherlands Sittard (women)
10 1985 Soviet Union Moscow Hungary Budapest (men), Hungary Budapest (women)
11 1987 Czechoslovakia Prague Sweden Gothenburg (men), Sweden Gothenburg (women)
12 1989 United Kingdom Gateshead Belgium Brussels (men), France Strasbourg (women)
13 1991 Germany Frankfurt Spain Barcelona
14 1993 Italy Rome Belgium Brussels
15 1994 United Kingdom Birmingham Spain Valencia
16 1995 France Villeneuve d'Ascq Switzerland Basel, Finland Turku
17 1996 Spain Madrid Portugal Lisbon, Norway Bergen
18 1997 Germany Munich Czech Republic Prague, Republic of Ireland Dublin
19 1998 Russia St. Petersburg Hungary Budapest, Sweden Malmö
20 1999 France Paris Finland Lahti, Greece Athens
21 2000 United Kingdom Gateshead Norway Oslo, Poland Bydgoszcz
21 2001 Germany Bremen Finland Vaasa, Hungary Budapest
22 2002 France Annecy Slovakia Banská Bystrica, Spain Seville
23 2003 Italy Florence Finland Lappeenranta, Slovenia Velenje
24 2004 Poland Bydgoszcz Bulgaria Plovdiv, Turkey Istanbul
25 2005 Italy Florence Sweden Gävle, Portugal Leiria
26 2006 Spain Málaga Czech Republic Prague, Greece Thessaloniki
27 2007 Germany Munich Finland Vaasa, Italy Milan
28 2008 France Annecy Portugal Leiria, Turkey Istanbul

See also

References

  1. "Overall Qualification Ranking 2008". European Athletics. Archived from the original on June 26, 2008. Retrieved 2008-06-26.
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