The revolution of European athletics begins in Leiria this weekend

19/06/2009

The first European Team Championships start tomorrow in Leiria, Portugal, and demonstrate an authentic experiment by the European Athletics to present one of the most outstanding competitions of this sport in order to making it more dynamic, attractive and entertaining for the public and the spectators at home. 

The future of athletics depends on this test of changes of some rules which have been untouchables until today. It is the major revolution in this sport since its beginning.

The Championships, former European Cup, will be distributed according to the format of various divisions. The highest category will compete in Leiria presenting the twelve best European teams. Spain is amongst them.

There will be only one champion, regardless of sex, and the three worst teams relegate to the second category. The winner of each discipline receives 12 points, the second on 11, and so on.

The main changes in the different disciplines are as follows.

--Zero tolerance in the sprint events. Any athlete making a false start will be eliminated.

--In the long distance events (3000m and 5000m) and 3000m Steeplechase three athletes will not finish the race. During the event, athletes will be eliminated. In the 3000m and 3000m Steeplechase the last arthlete at 5, 4 and 3 laps remainng to the finnish will be eliminated. Same procedure in 5000m race but at 7, 5 and 3 laps remaining.

--In the Long Jump and Triple Jump, such as the four throwing events, athletes only have four attempts. All participants attend the first two, but only the six best athletes enter the third round. Then, the best four get one more attempt in the fourth and last round.

--In the High Jump and Pole Vault events only four unsuccessful attempts are allowed. Athletes who go beyond this number of foul attempts will be eliminated. Furthermore, they have only one minute to realize each attempt.

This morning, in the press conference celebrated in the Estádio Municipal Magalhaes Pessoa, Hansjörg Wirz and José Luís de Carlos have presented these regulation changes.