Velenje 2011 a Cross Country Success

Velenje 2011 confirms good health of cross country in Europe

Velenje 2011

European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz paid tribute to the organisation of the Velenje 2011 SPAR European Cross Country Championships and hailed the record number of runners who competed in the Slovenian city on Sunday.

“Having the opportunity to now look back on the 18th SPAR European Cross Country Championships, I believe that it was an excellent championships,” said President Wirz.

“The decision by European Athletics to return to Velenje 12 years after the city first staged the Championships in 1999 proved to be justified in every respect. The local organisers can take great pride in putting on a fantastic event, one of the best SPAR European Cross Country Championships I have witnessed.

“Talking to people from some of our 33 Member Federations that were in Velenje, at the closing banquet later on Sunday, I can say confidently that this view is held by everybody I spoke to, it’s not just my personal perspective on the day.

“We had a record number of participants overall with 479 athletes contesting the six races and there were specifically a record numbers of runners in both the junior races. The figures for the senior races, even though they were not quite records, held up well by comparison with recent years, since the introduction of the under 23 category in 2006.

“Continuing on the subject of the races, special congratulations have to go to Great Britain who were again the best country, and on this occasion by quite a margin, in terms of medals. With 12 places on the podium and six gold medals, it was a fair reward for how much commitment and enthusiasm UK Athletics and British athletes generally have for cross country running.

“However, I was very pleased to see medals going to no less than 11 different countries from all points of the compass within Europe.

“This shows that cross country running at international level has a European-wide appeal and many of European Athletics’ efforts to develop this aspect of the sport across the continent in the last decade, are definitely bearing fruit.

“We are still waiting for the final television audiences from the national partners of the European Broadcasting Union but, with 14 countries showing intentions to broadcast the championships, I feel confident that they will be highly satisfactory.

“Also, for the first time, we broadcast the entire championships live via the internet on the European Athletics website, and there were more than 25,000 streams during the day.

“Our provision of the live stream platform shows that European Athletics is dedicated to providing the best possible environment, both real and virtual, for cross country running and is supporting this aspect of athletics across Europe.

“After the thrilling races on Sunday, I also reflected on the fact that the next two editions will be staged in countries which have not been the hosts of this Championships before, also showing the determination of European Athletics to help with the development and expansion of cross country running.”

The next two SPAR European Cross Country Championships will be held in Szentendre, which is just outside the the Hungarian capital Budapest, in 2012 and then in Belgrade, Serbia, in 2013.