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| IAAF vice president and pole vault legend Sergei Bubka of Ukraine. |
Ukrainian pole vault legend and IAAF vice-president Sergey Bubka has hailed the decision to stage the 2012 European Athletics Championships in the Finnish capital of Helsinki and given the event his full support.
“The European Athletics Championships will be held on two-year cycle for the first time. I am absolutely sure that the biennial system gives us great opportunities. Athletes are rewarded by an additional chance to win medals while fans get an occasion to follow world class competitions just several weeks before the Olympics,” said Bubka, speaking in the Ukrainian capital Kiev.
“I know that the Organizing Committee in Helsinki is doing an exceptional job in launching a lot of innovations for the new concept of the European Athletics Championships. Helsinki is an emblematic city for athletics, the only city that has hosted two Worlds and two European Championships,” he added.
Bubka has fond memories of competing in Helsinki himself.
The city staged the 1983 World Championships in the same Olympic Stadium that will play host to next year's European Athletics Championships and despite being just 19, he upset the odds and announced his arrival on the world stage by winning the first of his six World Championships gold medals at just 19 years of age.
Bubka also believes that the host nation will rise to the occasion despite their modest haul of one bronze medal - from javelin thrower Tero Pitkamí¤ki - at the previous edition of the Championships in Barcelona last year not getting among the medals
“Everybody is waiting for something new and extraordinary from the Finns, and I am sure they will meet the expectations,” commented Bubka.