11th July 2013 07:25
The reason is straightforward - look what this event did for Poland's Adam Kszczot.
Prior to the 2009 championships in Kaunas, Kszczot, then 19, had been making inroads as an impressive youngster.
In Hengelo in 2007 he had won bronze at the European Junior Championships and the following year finished fourth at the World Junior Championships in Bydgoszcz, the same position he achieved at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Turin in March 2009.
But then, four months later, came the event that bridges the gap between juniors and senior and the Polish middle-distance runner found himself where he wanted to be - at the top of the podium.
With a strong performance, Kszczot won gold in Kaunas in 1:45.81, beating his teammate Marcin Lewandowski who was second in 1:46.52 with Germany's Robert Schembera in third in 1:46.63.
Fours years down the line, Kszczot has three more gold medals to his name, built on that first one from Kaunas.
He has triumphed at the past two European Athletics Indoor Championships, in Göteborg retaining the title he won in Paris in 2011 while two years ago in Ostrava, he was crowned European Under-23 champion for a second time.
Carrying the Polish torch on Thursday evening will be just one runner, Artur Kuciapski, who, like Kszczot was in Kaunas, is 19.
He will hope it is a good omen on this opening day in Tampere with the final of the event on Friday.
But Kszczot's achievements in Kaunas were just the start.
He won bronze at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona in 2010 and when he won in Sweden in March, he created his own piece of history.
Not for 42 years had a man retained his title in the 800m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships and as Kszczot said: 'It is so special for me. It is always hard to defend because everyone is thinking of how to catch you, how to take your title for themselves and it is something which is around your head all the time.'
But to defend a title, you need to be a champion in the first place and every athlete will tell you how tough that is too. Winning the first gold can make all the difference – and the European Athletics U23 Championships did just that for Adam Kszczot.