50 nations and 1572 athletes, first Barcelona 2010 records

04/03/2010

With the entry of Iceland (10 athletes), the last nation to register, the number of countries participating in the European Athletics Championships Barcelona 2010 reaches its maximum, 50 countries, which is equivalent to the number of European Athletics’ Member Federations, meaning that the entire athletics continent will participate in the event.

The provisional number of athletes – the final deadline to register is 18 July – is 1572. Both, the number of nations and athletes represent a double record in the history of the championships. The previous record was achieved in the 2006 edition held in Göteborg, where 48 nations and a total of 1288 athletes participated.

The biggest teams are Russia (120), Germany (117) and Spain (105). Sending only one athlete to Barcelona, Monaco is the smallest squad. An average of 33 athletes per country will participate at the European Athletics Championships. Neither Great Britain nor France or Italy is following the three big teams, but Poland with 92 athletes.

With 105 athletes – the number of marathon runners has increased (6) due to this year’s European Cup – Spain is beating all previous records. It is expected that the host’s team will compete in all 47 disciplines.

The two marathon competitions, which will entirely be carried out in Barcelona’s city centre, count with 54 athletes in the female race (31 July at 10.05am) and 69 in the male race (1 August at 10.05am) – discipline with most participants. On the other side, only 17 athletes will start in the 10000m female race and 27 in the male 5000 and 3000m steeplechase.            

Barcelona 2010’s numbers predict a high level competition. At next week’s World indoor champs in Doha 630 athletes, 347 men and 283 women, will participate.