European Cup (athletics)

The main idea of the cup, developed by Bruno Zauli, president of the European Committee of the International Association of Athletics Federations, was to create a competition for all European athletics federations, in which they would face each other in track and field events. Although Zauli died a few months before the launch of the first event, the competition has gone from strength to strength.

The competition always had different leagues through which countries had to progress. For the first twenty years, there were different groups (leagues) that took place at different times. Smaller nations, like Luxembourg and Switzerland, would compete in preliminary rounds, before larger countries, such as the United Kingdom and France, would join in the semi-finals. The top two countries from three semi-finals would enter into the final.

This formula was fairly successful; however, by 1983 the number of competitions that athletes were expected to compete in made it extremely difficult for countries to send their best team to each event. The format of the cup had to be changed so that each country in the whole cup competed on the same day.

The top league was named the Super League and contained eight male and eight female teams. The male and female teams were separate teams, which meant that the female team of one country could get relegated while their male counterpart would stay in the Super League as long as they had enough points. Below the Super League were the First and Second Leagues, which contained other European countries that did not qualify for the finals.

In 2009, the competition took a new format, European Team Championships. There are now four leagues, which consist of 20 events for men and 20 for women. The Super League and the First League have 12 teams each, while the Second League and the Third League 8 and 14 respectively. Team scores are calculated by combination of men and women's points.

Countries scored points for their performance in each race/event: The winning athlete received 8 points for their country, and this then carried on so second would get 7 points, third 6 points, etc. In the case of an athlete that did not finish a race, was disqualified or did not record a mark (as the case may be), their country would receive zero points for that event.

The male and female team with the most points was declared the winner. The four winning teams from the 'Super League' (two male and two female) went on to compete as individual countries in the IAAF World Cup in Athletics.

Since 1983, the lowest scoring male, and the lowest scoring female teams in the 'Super League' were relegated down into the 'First League'. These were replaced by the highest scoring male and female teams from the 'First League'. This process was repeated for relegation/promotion from the second to the first league. This system allowed countries to progress, and for a wider range of athletes to compete against opposition they might not normally face.

The leagues for the 2009 competition were formed by combination of each country's men and women's performances in 2008. As the teams are 46, the winning team received 46 points, the second 45 and so on. The new leagues are:[1]

Super League

Country	Pts
Russia	1548
Great Britain	1518
Poland	1512
Germany	1472
Italy	1455
Spain	1426.5
France	1423.5
Ukraine	1412.5
Greece	1359.5
Sweden	1309
Czech Republic	1236
Portugal	1222

First League

Country	Pts
Belarus	1217
Slovenia	1211
Romania	1182.5
Turkey	1166
Belgium	1139
Hungary	1133
Netherlands	1118
Finland	1072.5
Estonia	1035.5
Switzerland	1032.5
Serbia	1028.5
Norway	974

Second League

Country	Pts
Ireland	971.5
Bulgaria	947
Croatia	942
Latvia	933
Slovakia	901
Lithuania	839.5
Austria	783
Cyprus	749

Third League

Country	Pts
Moldova	722
Israel	714
Denmark	709.5
Bosnia and Herzegovina	555.5
Iceland	550.5
Luxembourg	399.5
Georgia	356
Azerbaijan	332.5
Montenegro	310.5
Armenia	301.5
AASSE	280
Albania	191
Andorra	187
Macedonia	164

Below is a list of the events that took place at the championships, and what is the European Cup record, who set it, what country they represented and which year.

• European Athletics Association
• European Athletics Indoor Cup
• European Athletics Team Championships

• Málaga 2006 Official Website
• Málaga 2006 Schedule
• European Cup Memories
• Bulletin for 2007 event (pdf)