Mondo Duplantis, Femke Bol, Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Katarina Johnson-Thompson are among the big names competing in the Italian capital from June 7-12
After staging its new off-road running championships in the alpine town of Annecy in recent days, European Athletics is back down to earth, literally, this week with European Athletics Championships in Rome. The flagship event runs from Friday June 7 to Wednesday June 12 and will see some of the best track and field athletes on the continent battling for medals.
The event is returning to its birthplace as it was first staged in Turin in 1934. Later, in 1974, the championships were staged in Rome with a memorable few days of athletics that will celebrate its 50th anniversary in September.
Fifty years ago the Stadio Olimpico hosted the championships and the same arena stages the 2024 meeting. Since switching from a four-yearly event to a biennial meeting in 2012 and now being staged in Olympic year, there was a danger the European Championships would begin to lose its lustre.
Olympic medal contenders are tempted to give it a miss in order to save themselves for the Olympics. Or they might simply use it as a warm-up event for the Olympics. In addition, the European Championships could potentially be dominated by athletes who are simply unlikely to make their national Olympic teams.
This is far from the case in Rome in coming days, though. Certainly, some big-name athletes are giving it a miss. From Britain alone there will be no Josh Kerr, Jake Wightman or Laura Muir. But the number of top stars who are eager to compete for European titles is encouraging and exciting.
In total there are nine world champions from Budapest last year who are planning to compete in Rome. They are Femke Bol (400m hurdles), Yaroslava Mahuchikh (high jump), Katarina Johnson-Thompson (heptathlon), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1500/5000m), Karsten Warholm (400m hurdles), Gianmarco Tamberi (high jump), Armand Duplantis (pole vault), Miltiadis Tentoglou (long jump) and Daniel Stahl (discus).
More than 30 individual champions from the last European Championships in Munich two years ago are also set to compete. These include Sandra Elkasevic (née Perkovic) of Croatia, who is seeking a record seventh successive European title in the discus.
All of which is great news if you consider Birmingham is staging the 2026 European Championships, with no Olympics that year as a distraction either.
A strong British team includes Johnson-Thompson, Keely…
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