Traditionally the European Athletics Championships represent an opportunity for continental athletes to step into the spotlight without having to worry about the American, Jamaican and African dominance in certain running events.
Though this will remain the case for sprinters and long-distance runners in Zurich, some events such as the heptathlon will feature almost all of the world’s best athletes.
According to the 2013 world rankings, 17 of the top 20 heptathletes are from Europe, led by Tatyana Chernova of Russia with 6623 points followed by the Ukraine’s Hanna Melnychenko with her gold medal winning performance of 6586 from the World Championships in Moscow.
It should be an interesting opposition in Switzerland as Chernova has yet to win a medal at the European Championships and will have strong desire after having been forced to pull out of the World Championships last year due to injury.
In the women’s high jump 16 of the top 20 are European and all of them surpassed 1.94m last season which means the competition will be wide open as it is quite difficult to distinguish who the medal favourites are.
Several surprises are to be expected and all women will have to perform at their very best if they wish to step onto the podium this summer.
The throwing events are a long lasting European tradition especially in the men’s hammer throw with 38 of the last 42 medals at previous World championships having gone to Europe.
It goes without saying that the competition will be fierce in Zurich, where winning a gold continental medal could carry as much weight as winning a world title.