Following the elections for European Athletics President, Vice Presidents and Council members earlier on Saturday (22), the European Athletics Congress preceded with further important decisions.
Details of the European Running Championships, which will make its debut in 2025, were unveiled and the latest European Athletics event was incorporated into the Constitution.
The innovative Championships – which will include the marathon, half marathon, and 10km distances on the road – will host thousands of runners from across Europe and have a mass participation element to it which will see participants able to start side-by-side with national team competitors.
In addition to medals being awarded to winning individuals and teams – who will be able to call themselves European champions – mass-race participants can also compete for medals in brand-new ‘country ranking’ competition.
The first edition of the European Running Championships will be held in over two days in April 2025, with the inaugural host city – European Athletics having received several strong declarations of interest – to be announced this coming June.
"This will be a unique championships as every runner will be an athlete and every athlete can be a champion. It gives everyone in our sport the chance to experience that unique championships feeling. Welcome to the European Running Championships," commented European Athletics CEO Christian Milz.
Among the 13 changes to the European Athletics Constitution which were accepted by the Congress were enhanced European Athletics’ policies on safeguarding as well as enshrining in the Constitution certain obligations by its Member Federations.
A presentation to the Congress from the European Athletics Working Group on Human Rights, with six recommendations about how to integrate human rights requirements into the bidding process and regulations of European Athletics events, was also warmly received and it is anticipated that such requirements will be incorporated into bids for European Athletics events in the near future.
The proposal to add the mixed 4x400m to the European Athletics Championships programme, starting from Rome 2024, was also approved by Congress.
A progress report on the Rome 2024 European Athletics Championships – the most important item in the European Athletics event portfolio – was delivered.
Optimism is high among that the Italian capital, which will be staging the continent’s premier athletics event next year 50 years after it was last held in Rome, will be an impressive successor to Berlin 2018 and Munich 2022.
"We are striving to make Rome 2024 the best European Athletics Championships. Spectators will be welcomed to the historic Olympic Stadium which has been recently refurbished, and the city of Rome and Lazio region are already embracing the concept of having Europe's top athletics competition in Rome," said Rome 2024 Director General Paolo Carito.
"And the half marathons will pass some of the most famous monuments of Rome, including the Colosseum," he added.
Among the last acts of the 2023 Congress were to recognise some of the outstanding and selfless servants of our sport in Europe and the following honours were awarded:
Plaque of Merit
Bernard Amsalem (FRA)
Manuel Arons de Carvalho (POR, deceased)
Dragoslav Višnjić (SRB)
Golden Pin
Franciso Borao Martin (ESP)
Jan Engström (SWE)
Frank Oliver Hamm (GER)
Aleksandar Vangelov (BUL)