Italy's Giovanni Evangelisti was one of the great long jumpers of the 1980s and early 1990s. The architect from Rimini competed in the SPAR European Cup on seven consecutive occasions across a 12-year period from 1981 to 1993, although he only won once, on his final appearance in front of an ecstatic home crowd in Rome's Olympic stadium.

Evangelisti on what was it like finally winning in the Cup in 1993...

I still have beautiful memories of that day. What better place to break the hoodoo the Cup seemed to hold over me than in Rome's Olympic stadium, and I managed to produce my winning mark with my last jump.

Evangelisti on what the Cup means to him...

For me, in a sense, it was sort of a relief as it meant the season had started seriously and I could begin to benefit from all the hard work I had done in training during the rest of the year. I was never very lucky in the Cup (in fact, Evangelisti finished last on two occasions) but it was very important to me. I always tried to get the maximum number of points possible for the team. In itself, that was a unique and fascinating aspect of the Cup, as athletes tend to look upon themselves as individuals and not part of a group.

I was always very proud to compete in the Cup because it was created by a fellow Italian Bruno Zauli. All the Italian athletes I competed with were aware of the origins of the Cup and so we always wanted to do well, to uphold the honour and traditions of Italian athletics.