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| The 2010 SPAR European Team Champions Russia. Who will challenge themat Stockholm 2011? |
Legend has it that Stockholm was actually founded midway through the 13th century as a walled city to stop invaders pillaging the rest of Sweden but, nearly 800 years later, foreign armies are set to be welcomed with open arms, at least if they are wearing athletics apparel.
The third edition of the SPAR European Team Championships will be staged in Stockholm’s Olympic Stadium on 18-19 June and it is anticipated that this year’s event will be as enthralling as its two predecessors.
Two years ago, the Portuguese city of Leiria staged the inaugural championships, which replaced the previous SPAR European Cup and introduced an innovative new format which brought men and women together, competing in a single competition.
In 2009, Germany emerged triumphant as Europe’s top athletics nation, by a narrow margin from Russia. They were helped by a series of outstanding performances which included Ariane Friedrich clearing 2.02m to win the women’s high jump and Christina Obergföll sending the javelin out to 68.59m to get maximum points in her speciality.
In the men’s events, pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie was the star of that weekend when he cleared 6.01m for a new French record, one of four national records set in Leiria.
Last year, the championships moved from southern Europe to the north and were staged in the picturesque Norwegian coastal city of Bergen.
Russia bounced back emphatically from narrowly losing out 12 months before to emerge as convincing winners by 62.5 points from Great Britain.
Arguably the top race of the weekend was the men’s 100m in which Britain’s Dwain Chambers ran 9.99 to just edge out France’s soon-to-be triple European champion and 2010 European Athlete of the Year Christophe Lemaître.
However, among the Russian athletes who helped their country back to top spot on the continental stage with maximum points were long jumper Pavel Shalin who leapt to a barely wind-assisted 8.26m and pole vaulter Svetlana Feofanova with a clearance at 4.65m, and a victory which put her well on the road to winning a European title in Barcelona six weeks later.
Tatyana Dektyareva ran 12.68 for the women’s 100m hurdles while the Russian women’s 4x400m quartet clocked 3:23.76, a time only beaten by their own team in Barcelona during the rest of 2010.
There is no doubt that the Swedish capital will also witness similar superlative feats to those that were achieved in Leiria and Bergen although the oldest Olympic stadium still being used for athletics meetings already has a long and illustrious history.
No less than 83 world records have so far been set at the venue.
This year, the 12 teams competing in SPAR European Team Championships will be: Russia, Great Britain, Germany, France, Ukraine, Poland, Italy, Belarus, Spain, Czech Republic, Sweden and Portugal.
The final three countries were promoted from last year’s First League. It was also the same trio who were relegated from the top flight in 2009 so there will be exactly the same dozen nations who took part in Leiria two years ago.
The big question is, who can defeat Russia after her emphatic success in Bergen and long history of producing outstanding teams that regularly top the medal tables at major European and global championships?
The 2009 champions Germany will doubtless be once again a threat while Great Britain and France, who have also finished in the top four countries in both of the last two years, will almost certainly be sending strong teams as well.
The event will be organised by the Swedish Athletic Association, the City of Stockholm and Stadionklubbarna, an association consisting of the 12 main athletics clubs in Stockholm.