The Portuguese city of Leiria has already hosted the European Throwing Cup on three separate occasions since 2014 and the event will remain in Leiria through until 2022.
The decision to award Leiria the next three editions of the European Throwing Cup - which for many throwers represents their first international competition of the season - was in no small part due to the excellent facilities on offer in Leiria and the proven track record of organising excellent European Athletics competitions.
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen attended the 2018 European Throwing Cup in Leiria and was effusive in his praise. “We knew that Leiria would stage an excellent competition. The city has played host to many big competitions at junior and senior level in recent seasons and the organisational quality has always been of a very high standard,” he said.
The 2018 European Throwing Cup will be remembered for Johannes Vetter’s incredible exploits in the javelin. Fresh from winning the gold medal at the IAAF World Championships in London a few months ago, Vetter smashed the event record by seven metres in Leiria with 92.70m - the 12th longest throw of all-time.
The event first took place in Nice, France in 2001 under its initial alias of the European Winter Throwing Challenge. It became the European Cup Winter Throwing in 2005 before assuming its current event name - the European Throwing Cup - in 2016.
The 2019 European Throwing Cup took place in Samorin, Slovakia and this year’s edition was the biggest to date based on the final entries with 329 athletes - 170 men and 159 women - from 38 nations taking part across the two days.
There were two world leading performances in Samorin this March. Hanna Malyshik won the hammer with 74.95m and her Belarusian teammate Tatsiana Khaladovich won the javelin with 65.89m from reigning European champion Christin Hussong from Germany with 65.47m.