The date and venue for the 2025 European Running Championships, as well as key proposals relating to governance and competitions, were approved at the most recent European Athletics Council meeting which took place in Chorzow, Poland from 23-25 June.
The 170th Council meeting – which took place during the last three days of the Silesia 2023 European Athletics Team Championships – approved the host cities and dates for the inaugural edition of the European Running Championships, which can be announced will take place in Brussels and Leuven on 12-13 April 2025.
The innovative new addition to the European Athletics calendar will see thousands of mass participation runners joining the continent’s top stars for a festival of running on and around the streets of Belgium.
The event – which was officially announced earlier this year at the European Athletics Congress in April –will see road races take centre stage at a standalone European championship and features three events over two days: 10km, half marathon and marathon.
Europe’s top distance runners will race alongside the masses, bringing the stars of the sport and their fans closer than ever with 25,000 runners expected to be involved.
“I am very excited about the introduction of the European Running Championships onto the European Athletics calendar. I think this will be a marvellous innovation which will encourage many more people to participate and engage with our sport. And what better place to start than Brussels and Leuven which has such a strong athletics tradition and history,” said European Athletics President Karamarinov.
Governance and Integrity to the fore
The European Athletics Council also approved the formation of a Governance and Integrity Commission, which has the mandate to ensure the highest standards of integrity and governance within European Athletics while also promoting those practices among its Member Federations.
The Commission will be chaired by European Athletics First Vice President Jean Gracia and will have the responsibility for developing the relevant governance and integrity policies within European Athletics and its Member Federations.
Its key areas of responsibility include the governance structure of European Athletics and Member Federations, the continue to work on achieving complete gender equity in the sport, especially its organisational structures at all levels, and the implementation of practices to commit to the respect of human rights and secure safeguarding at our events and activities.
“European Athletics has been in the forefront among sports organisations in promoting both governance and safeguarding in all its forms and structures, but I think the creation of a specific Commission will take us one step further in making athletics a sport where everyone can feel safe, especially children, and they can feel confident that the leaders of our sport have their well-being as a priority,” said Karamarinov.
“We already had strong governance and safeguarding structures and policies in place prior to the creation of the Commission but this consolidates and strengthens our work in this area,” he added.
In the past, recommendations on developing safeguarding and governance structures had been provided by an advisory group, but in a commitment to providing the highest standards of service to all the sport’s participants and stakeholders, it was deemed crucial to create a Commission with direct responsibility for this area.
Further to the Governance and Integrity Commission, members of the Events & Competition Commission, Development Commission, Medical & Anti-Doping Commission as well as members of the following Advisory Groups: Financial, Marketing, Running, TV, Communications & Digital and a newly formed Youth Advisory Group have been appointed by the Council, with a full list of names to be published shortly on the European Athletics website.
“All our Commissions and Advisory Groups have important roles in determining the direction of European Athletics and our sport in Europe. The newly formed Youth Advisory Group will have a critical part to play in making our sport relevant to the younger age groups and take our sport ahead into the 2030s and beyond,” reflected Karamarinov.
In addition, members of both the European Athletics Court and Evaluation Panel were also confirmed.
The Council also approved a proposal from the President to add two more Council members Anna Kirnova and Raul Chapado to the Executive Board in line with the provisions outlined in the European Athletics Constitution.
President Karamarinov noted that both of them have huge experience and expertise, and they will contribute greatly to the work of the Executive Board.
European Athletics competition and calendar announcements
In addition to the matters of governance and composition of Commissions, the Council made several important decisions regarding forthcoming competitions.
An amendment to the competition programme for the European Athletics U18 Championships was also approved, with the race walk distance changed from 10,000m to 5000m.
This will be applied from the Banska Bystrica 2024 European Athletics U18 Championships. A similar change had already been made to the programme for the European Youth Olympic Festival.
The competition entry standards for next year’s Championships in Banska Bystrica, Slovakia from 18-21 July were also approved.
It was also announced that the 2024 European Athletics Off-Road Running Championships will take place from 31 May-2 June in the region of Annecy, France.