Established in 1971, it has over the years attracted thousands of
children ages 10-14 to the sport and been Estonia’s most effective
talent identification tool. Organisers claim that 80% of the members of
the national team, including Olympic champions Erki Nool and Gerd
Kanter, first got the athletics wind in their sails by participating in
the competition.
“The idea is to bring children closer to athletics by attracting their
interest at a young age,” says Sirje Lippe, General Secretary of the
Estonia Athletics Federation. “The aim is to offer children the
opportunity to compete in high-quality and well-organised competitions
with good prizes.”
The competition runs from November until mid-July. It is split into two
periods, one each for ‘winter’ and ‘summer’ events. Both periods begin
with schools entering teams in 15 county-level heats, organised by
local sports associations. There the children compete in two
disciplines each to score points for their team.
More than half of the country’s schools participate in the heats and
the top teams move on to local finals and then the federation-organised
national final.
ETV’s live broadcasts of the national final are normally watched by
some 100,000 people (out of a population of 1.3 million) and repeat
telecasts can attract an even greater number of viewers, due largely to
word of mouth publicity by the competing athletes.
ETV also airs local competition finals and sometimes even the heats.
Many well-known local athletes are used to present the programme and
share practical training tips. An additional benefit comes from the
opportunity to educate the Physical Education teachers who organise the
school teams about the sport of athletics.
Lippe explains that, the despite the strong tradition that has been
established, there is still room for growth and improvement. While the
competition is extremely popular outside cities, there is not as much
interest as the federation would wish from schools in the capital of
Tallinn.
“Our future target is to get more city-based children on board.”
The federation and ETV are also thinking beyond Estonia. They are
developing plans to export the concept to the neighboring countries of
Finland, Sweden, Norway and Latvia and then inviting their top teams to
compete in the televised finals.
| Fact File | |
| Programme: | TV’s 10 Olympic Starts |
| Organiser: | Eesti Kergejíµustikuliit (Estonian Athletics Federation), Estonia Television |
| Start Date: | 1971 |
| Target Group: | Children 10 to 14 years old |
| Participants in 2008: | 6000+ |
| Support: | Ministry of Culture and Sport, Nike, other local sponsors, European Union |
| More Information: | Sirje Lippe sirje@ekjl.ee |