The 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships were held from 5 to 8 March 2015 in the

O2 Arena O2 Arena may refer to: *The O2 Arena (London) *O2 Arena (Prague) *The 3Arena The 3Arena (originally The O2) is an indoor amphitheatre located at North Wall Quay in the Dublin Docklands in Dublin, Ireland. The venue opened as The O2 on 16 Decem ...

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and List of cities in the Czech Republic, largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 milli ...

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

Bidding process

Prague was chosen as the host of the Championships on the European Athletics council meeting in

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...

, Bulgaria in May 2012. The other candidate city was

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, Turkey. Previously, Prague hosted the

1967 European Indoor Games The 1967 European Indoor Games were held at Sportovní hala, Prague, Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic) from 11 March to 12 March 1967. The track used for the championships was 150 metres long. Medal summary Men Women Medal table ...

, the forerunner of the European Athletics Indoor Championships. It was the first time since the

1978 European Athletics Championships The 12th European Athletics Championships were held from 29 August to 3 September 1978 in the Stadion Evžena Rošického in Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). Contemporaneous reports on the event were given ...

that Prague hosted a major athletics championships. International athletics events in the Czech Republic traditionally took place away from Prague at the outdoor arena in

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...

. That city's annual

Golden Spike Ostrava Golden Spike ( cz, Zlatá tretra) is an annual athletics event at the Městský Stadion in Ostrava- Vítkovice, Czech Republic as part of the IAAF World Challenge Meetings. It was first organized in 1961. The history of the meeting was interru ...

meet began in 1961, and the 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships and 2007 World Youth Championships in Athletics were held in the preceding years.2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships Team Manual
European Athletics (2015). Retrieved on 2015-03-05. However, the annual

Josef Odložil Memorial The Josef Odložil Memorial ( cs, Memoriál Josefa Odložila) is an annual track and field meeting which takes place in June at Stadion Juliska (until 2001 at Stadion Evžena Rošického) in Prague, Czech Republic. The competition was first held ...

outdoor meeting in Prague has attracted international athletes since 1994.

Preparation

Prior to the event, the O2 Arena in Prague was not a regular venue for indoor track and field. The stadium was host to the one-off "Meeting of World Record Holders" in 2009, which was the first international non-championship indoor meeting to be staged in the capital. A year before the championships, the Prague Indoor Meeting was staged as a test event and it received

European Athletics The European Athletic Association (more commonly known as European Athletics) is the governing body for athletics in Europe. It is one of the six Area Associations of the world's athletics governing body World Athletics. European Athletics has 51 ...

permit status. This attracted top level performers and highlights included a European indoor record by high jumper

Ivan Ukhov Ivan Sergeyevich Ukhov (russian: Иван Сергеевич Ухов; born 29 March 1986) is a Russian high jumper. He won a gold medal at the 2010 IAAF World Indoor Championships and is a two-time European Indoor champion (2009 and 2011). ...

and a European indoor best for the 500 metres by home athlete

Pavel Maslák Pavel Maslák (, born 21 February 1991) is a Czech sprinter who specialises in the 200 metres and 400 metres. He is the only athlete in history who has managed to win the 400 m title at the World Indoor Championships at three consecutive champion ...

Maslák, the 400 m champion from the 2013 European Athletics Indoor Championships, led the Czech team for the championships, which at 46 athletes was the country's largest squad ever for the competition. Libor Varhaník, chairman of the organising committee, specifically aimed to have as many Czech athletes compete in the events as possible in order to build local interest and boost ticket sales. The opening ceremony was held on 5 March – a day before the main competition began on Friday (although shot put and men's long jump qualifying was held that evening). Former international high jumper and European indoor medallist Tomáš Janků was appointed as CEO and committee member of the organising group. The event was televised live, with a total of 28 international broadcasters having agreements to show the proceedings either live or delayed.

Eurosport Eurosport is a group of pay television networks in Europe and parts of Asia. Owned by Warner Bros. Discovery through its international sports unit, it operates two main channels— Eurosport 1 and Eurosport 2—across most of its territories, ...

was the most prominent of these in the competition's region, continuing its place as the traditional main broadcaster. A live internet feed of the event was also available on the European Athletics website. Retail chain

Spar SPAR, originally DESPAR, styled as DE SPAR, is a Dutch multinational that provides branding, supplies and support services for independently owned and operated food retail stores. It was founded in the Netherlands in 1932, by Adriaan van Well, ...

was the principal sponsor, reflecting the fact that it is the main commercial sponsor for the governing body. The event also had a dedicated social media presence in the form of a Facebook page and a Twitter feed (@praha2015), as well as an official website.2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships Media Guide
European Athletics. Retrieved on 2015-03-05. Charles bridge Prague - tunliweb

The competition logo incorporated a stylised version of the skyline of

Hradčany Hradčany (; german: Hradschin), the Castle District, is the district of the city of Prague, Czech Republic surrounding Prague Castle. The castle is one of the biggest in the world at about in length and an average of about wide. Its history ...

– the district around

Prague Castle Prague Castle ( cs, Pražský hrad; ) is a castle complex in Prague 1 Municipality within Prague, Czech Republic, built in the 9th century. It is the official office of the President of the Czech Republic. The castle was a seat of power for king ...

and historical seat of government. The official mascot of the competition was the Little Mole (''Krtek''), the protagonist of a popular Czech cartoon series. As the only major international indoor athletics event to be staged that year, the European Athletics Indoor Permit Meetings and (almost exclusively European-based)

IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings The IAAF Indoor Permit Meetings were an annual series of indoor track and field competitions organized by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) from 1997 until the end of 2015 season. In 2016 IAAF launched the IAAF World Ind ...

served as the competitive build up for the event. In the absence of official qualifying standards, team selection was partially based on performances at national championships for some of the larger European nations.

Men's results

Track

Field

Combined

Women's results

Track

Field

Combined

Medal table

Placing table

Points were awarded for every place in the top eight of each event: 8 for 1st, 7 for 2nd, 6 for 3rd, etc.Placing table
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Records

Participating nations

* (2) * (2) * (2) * (7) * (2) * (15) * (12) * (3) * (13) * (3) * (6) * (45) (Host) * (12) * (8) * (7) * (26) * (4) * (39) * (1) * (35) * (11) * (11) * (5) * (12) * (4) * (22) * (11) * (6) * (4) * (2) * (2) * (2) * (1) * (2) * (17) * (12) * (42) * (7) * (16) * (41) * (1) * (6) * (27) * (12) * (30) * (24) * (7) * (10) * (23)

References

External links

Official websiteEAA competition website
{{European athletics champs European Athletics Indoor Championships International athletics competitions hosted by the Czech Republic

European Athletics Indoor Championships The European Athletics Indoor Championships is a biennial indoor track and field competition for European athletes that is organised by the European Athletic Association. It was held for the first time in 1970, replacing the European Indoor Games ...

Sports competitions in Prague

March 2015 sports events in Europe