The first European Athletics Team Championships took place on 20 and 21 June 2009. The

track and field athletics Track and field is a sport that includes Competition#Sports, athletic contests based on running, jumping, and throwing skills. The name is derived from where the sport takes place, a running track and a grass field for the throwing and some of ...

tournament run by

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 ...

was the successor of the old

European Cup The UEFA Champions League (abbreviated as UCL, or sometimes, UEFA CL) is an annual club football competition organised by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA) and contested by top-division European clubs, deciding the competit ...

competition which was held annually until 2008. The Championships saw a number of new rules introduced, which were criticised by some athletes and observers.

New rules

The European Team Championships modified and added to the rules of its predecessor competition, the European Cup. Men and women's team competed under one unified national banner for the first time. Furthermore, the competition was opened to all European Athletics member states and was divided into four leagues: the Super League, First League, Second League, and Third League. The top two leagues each comprised twelve competing nations, while the Second and Third Leagues had eight and fourteen teams, respectively.Team Championships Regulations

. Retrieved on 24 June 2009. Elimination rules were added to the

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

3000 metres steeplechase The 3000 metres steeplechase or 3000-meter steeplechase (usually abbreviated as ) is the most common distance for the steeplechase in track and field Track and field is a sport that includes athletic contests based on running, jumping, a ...

, and

5000 metres The 5000 metres or 5000-metre run is a common long-distance running event in track and field, approximately equivalent to or . It is one of the track events in the Olympic Games and the World Championships in Athletics, run over laps of a stan ...

races. In the shorter races, the athlete in last place when five, four, and three laps were remaining was eliminated. In the 5000 m the cut off points were at seven, five, and three laps remaining. The rule change caused some confusion in the women's 3000 m when Spain's Natalia Rodríguez was eliminated with three laps remaining, but carried on running and eventually won the race. She was disqualified, however, and Russia's Gulnara Galkina-Samitova was announced as the winner. Rodriguez said that she thought the elimination stage came at a later point in the race,Turnbull, Simon (21 June 2009)
Chambers and GB stick to the rules with success
''

The Independent ''The Independent'' is a British online newspaper. It was established in 1986 as a national morning printed paper. Nicknamed the ''Indy'', it began as a broadsheet and changed to tabloid format in 2003. The last printed edition was publis ...

''. Retrieved on 24 June 2009. and winner Galkina-Samitova was critical of the change, stating "This new elimination rule shouldn't exist. Everyone should race till the end".Manuel Fernandes, Antonio (20 June 2009)
Narrow one point lead for Great Britain in Leiria – European Team Championships, day 1

IAAF World Athletics, formerly known as the International Amateur Athletic Federation (from 1912 to 2001) and International Association of Athletics Federations (from 2001 to 2019, both abbreviated as the IAAF) is the international governing body for ...

. Retrieved on 24 June 2009. Further problems arose in the men's 5000 m, when four athletes reached the five laps remaining mark at the same time. The group slowed, unable to tell who was eliminated, and while awaiting the photo-finish the four dropped away from the other runners. Race winner

Mo Farah Sir Mohamed Muktar Jama Farah (born Hussein Abdi Kahin; 23 March 1983) is a British long-distance runner. His ten global championship gold medals (four Olympic and six World titles) make him the most successful male track distance runner ever ...

complied with the elimination rule but stated that every athlete had a right to finish, branding the rule change as "strange".GB make strong start in Portugal
(20 June 2009). Retrieved on 24 June 2009. Sections of the press also expressed reservations about the changes. Other rule changes included a 'no

false start In sports, a false start is a disallowed start, usually due to a movement by a participant before (or in some cases after) being signaled or otherwise permitted by the rules to start. Depending on the sport and the event, a false start can result ...

rule' in all the track events. (Any athlete false starting would have been immediately disqualified and received no points, but this did not occur at the inaugural championships). Athletes in the

high jump The high jump is a track and field event in which competitors must jump unaided over a horizontal bar placed at measured heights without dislodging it. In its modern, most-practiced format, a bar is placed between two standards with a crash mat f ...

and

pole vault Pole vaulting, also known as pole jumping, is a track and field event in which an athlete uses a long and flexible pole, usually made from fiberglass or carbon fiber, as an aid to jump over a bar. Pole jumping competitions were known to the Myc ...

events were permitted a maximum total of four fouls throughout the day's competition. Also, the jumping and throwing events featured elimination rounds: athletes had two trial attempts, then the six best-ranked athletes had a third attempt, then finally the top four athletes had a fourth attempt. The elimination rounds caused some upsets, with highly rated Russian

hammer throw The hammer throw is one of the four throwing events in regular track and field competitions, along with the discus throw, shot put and javelin. The "hammer" used in this sport is not like any of the tools also called by that name. It consis ...

er, Aleksey Zagornyi failing to progress beyond the trial rounds. Many athletes did not fully support the new regulations, and European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz accepted that the rules needed refinement. However, he was pleased with the competition's reception and stated that the rule changes would make athletics more accessible to a wider audience. Portugal's Rui Silva, who won the

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

, remarked that although the regulations had unusual outcomes, a positive approach to the rules, and further refinement, would be beneficial to the sport.

Calendar

League positions

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

Super League

Place: Estádio Dr. Magalhães Pessoa,

Leiria Leiria (; cel-x-proto, ɸlāryo) is a city and municipality in the Central Region of Portugal. It is the 2nd largest city in that same region, with a municipality population of 128,640 (as of 2021) in an area of . It is the seat of its own distr ...

, Portugal

Participating countries

Men's events

Women's events

Final standings

New standing points after Russian athletes’ late disqualification.

Score table

Records

First League

* Place:

Fana Stadion Fana stadion is a multi-use stadium at Rådal in the borough of Fana in Bergen, Norway. Used for football matches, it is the home ground of Second Division team Fana IL. It also has a rubber track for track and field meets, and the stadium mos ...

Bergen Bergen (), historically Bjørgvin, is a city and municipality in Vestland county on the west coast of Norway. , its population is roughly 285,900. Bergen is the second-largest city in Norway. The municipality covers and is on the peninsula of ...

, Norway

Participating countries

Men's events

Women's events

Final standings

Records

Second League

*Place:

Banská Bystrica Banská Bystrica (, also known by other alternative names) is a middle-sized town in central Slovakia, located on the Hron River in a long and wide valley encircled by the mountain chains of the Low Tatras, the Veľká Fatra, and the Kremnica Mo ...

Slovakia Slovakia (; sk, Slovensko ), officially the Slovak Republic ( sk, Slovenská republika, links=no ), is a landlocked country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Poland to the north, Ukraine to the east, Hungary to the south, Austria to the s ...

Participating countries

Men's events

Women's events

Final standings

Records

Third League

*Place:

Sarajevo Sarajevo ( ; cyrl, Сарајево, ; ''see Names of European cities in different languages (Q–T)#S, names in other languages'') is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Bosnia and Herzegovina, with a population of 275,524 in its a ...

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina ( sh, / , ), abbreviated BiH () or B&H, sometimes called Bosnia–Herzegovina and often known informally as Bosnia, is a country at the crossroads of south and southeast Europe, located in the Balkans. Bosnia and H ...

Participating countries

Athletic Association of Small States of Europe The Athletic Association of Small States of Europe (AASSE) is a transnational organization representing the athletic interests of smaller European nations. It was created following a proposal by the Cyprus, Iceland, Liechtenstein and Luxembourg ...

(, , , )

Men's events

Women's events

Final standings

Records

References

External links

Super League results
(archived)
Second League Official Website
{{European Cup in athletics European Athletics Team Championships

European European, or Europeans, or Europeneans, may refer to: In general * ''European'', an adjective referring to something of, from, or related to Europe ** Ethnic groups in Europe ** Demographics of Europe ** European cuisine, the cuisines of Europe ...

2009 in European sport