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European Cup (athletics)

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European Athletics Cup
Statusdefunct
Genresports event
Frequencyannual / biannual
Location(s)various
Inaugurated1965
Most recent2008
Organised byEuropean Athletic Association
Websitewww.european-athletics.com
European Athletics Members

The European Cup is a former athletics competition for European teams that was replaced by the European Team Championships starting in 2009 and was organized by European Athletics Association. 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

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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.[clarification needed (unclear wording)]

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[clarification needed (unclear wording)] 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

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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

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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

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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

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European Cup highest tier winners
Year Finals Semi-Finals Prelims Middle tier Lowest tier Men's winner Women's winner Finals host city Finals host country
1965 Final Semi-Final Preliminaries  Soviet Union  Soviet Union Stuttgart/Kassel  West Germany
1967 Final Semi-Final Preliminaries  Soviet Union  Soviet Union Kiev  Soviet Union
1970 Final Semi-Final Preliminaries  East Germany  East Germany Stockholm/Budapest  Sweden/ Hungary
1973 Final Semi-Final Preliminaries  Soviet Union  East Germany Edinburgh  Great Britain
1975 Final Semi-Final Preliminaries  East Germany  East Germany Nice  France
1977 "A" Final Semi-Final Preliminaries "B" Final  East Germany  East Germany Helsinki  Finland
1979 "A" Final Semi-Final Preliminaries "B" Final  East Germany  East Germany Turin  Italy
1981 "A" Final Semi-Final Preliminaries "B" Final  East Germany  East Germany Zagreb  Yugoslavia
1983 "A" Final "B" Final "C" Final  East Germany  East Germany London  Great Britain
1985 "A" Final "B" Final "C" Final  Soviet Union  Soviet Union Moscow  Soviet Union
1987 "A" Final "B" Final "C" Final  Soviet Union  East Germany Prague  Czechoslovakia
1989 "A" Final "B" Final "C" Final  Great Britain  East Germany Gateshead  Great Britain
1991 "A" Final "B" Final "C" Final  Soviet Union  Germany Frankfurt  Germany
1993 Super League First League Second League  Russia  Russia Rome  Italy
1994 Super League First League Second League  Germany  Germany Birmingham  Great Britain
1995 Super League First League Second League  Germany  Russia Villeneuve d'Ascq  France
1996 Super League First League Second League  Germany  Germany Madrid  Spain
1997 Super League First League Second League  Great Britain  Russia Munich  Germany
1998 Super League First League Second League  Great Britain  Russia Saint Petersburg  Russia
1999 Super League First League Second League  Germany  Russia Paris  France
2000 Super League First League Second League  Great Britain  Russia Gateshead  Great Britain
2001 Super League First League Second League  Poland  Russia Bremen  Germany
2002 Super League First League Second League  Great Britain  Russia Annecy  France
2003 Super League First League Second League  France  Russia Florence  Italy
2004 Super League First League Second League  Germany  Russia Bydgoszcz  Poland
2005 Super League First League Second League  Germany  Russia Florence  Italy
2006 Super League First League Second League  France  Russia Málaga  Spain
2007 Super League First League Second League  France  Russia Munich  Germany
2008 Super League First League Second League  Great Britain  Russia Annecy  France

Best performances

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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

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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

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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

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# 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

Medals (1965-2008)

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European Cup Finals :[2]

RankNationGoldSilverBronzeTotal
1 Russia16311299374
2 Great Britain158116117391
3 Germany152198188538
4 East Germany1428565292
5 Soviet Union10011583298
6 France9688108292
7 Poland538799239
8 Italy526290204
9 Spain30333194
10 Romania29332688
11 Ukraine254342110
12 Greece16192560
13 Czech Republic15182356
14 Bulgaria11152046
15 Belarus10101636
16 Sweden99927
17 Finland6111431
18 Hungary4101630
19 Norway1214
20 Belgium1001
 Slovenia1001
22 Netherlands0505
23 Yugoslavia0112
Totals (23 entries)1,0741,0721,0733,219

See also

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References

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