European Athletics will decide Monday which of four bidding cities will host the 2013 European Team Championships Super League.
Braunschweig (Germany), Bydgoszcz (Poland), Gateshead (Great Britain & N.I.), and Ostrava (Czech Republic), will make their final presentations to the European Athletics Council in Frankfurt during its 129th meeting.
It is the first time that four cities have made it to the final stage of the bidding process for a European Athletics event.
European Athletics Director General Christian Milz said, “The cities are nearing the finish line and all of them have impressive credentials to show our newly elected Council.
“We can be assured from our robust and healthy bidding process – an integral part our long-term planning strategy – that the selected candidate will be able to deliver one of our flagship events to the highest of standards.”
The European Team Championships has gone from strength to strength since it began in 2009, introducing a number of groundbreaking initiatives including a revamp of traditional track and field regulations, men and women competing as one team, promotion and relegation battles among the four leagues, and a European 'league table.'
'With the European Team Championships we are leading the way in adapting and developing our sport so it maintains its appeal in the eyes of the spectators, TV viewers, media and athletes of today and tomorrow,” said Milz. “The number of cities bidding to host the Super League in 2013 goes some way to showing how well our changes have been received.”
In November, the European Athletics Council will award the right to host the 2016 European Athletics Championships. Amsterdam (Netherlands), Bydgoszcz, Istanbul (Türkiye), and Split (Croatia) have all submitted official bids to host European Athletics' flagship event.
The 2013 SPAR European Cross Country Championships hosts will also be decided in November, with Antalya (Türkiye), Dudince (Slovakia) and Belgrade (Serbia) in the running.