The Finnish judge was dismayed when the decision-makers introduced a rule favoring the best at the European Championships in Munich – “Wars against all sense of justice”

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MUNICH. The 2012 European Championships in Helsinki have been remembered by many athletics consumers as an event that received the B-class stamp. The reason was the absence of several stars. At the 2011 World Championships, European track and field athletes won a total of 43 individual medals in the sports in which they competed the following summer in Helsinki.

However, 28 World Cup medalists pointed with their gloves to the European Championships in Helsinki, including two World Cup medalists Mo Farah. Farah was one of the ten world champions who didn’t bother with Helsinki because they didn’t want to jeopardize their main goal of summer 2012, the London Olympics in August.

The lack of participants had its consequences. In the following Olympic year, i.e. in 2016, at the European Championships in Amsterdam, which preceded the five-ring races, a new rule was proven in sprints, where, depending on the sport, the 8–12 fastest runners in the statistics were placed directly in the semi-final stage.

Others had to run the heat as normal, such as the 400m hurdler Oskari Mörö, who was 14 hundredths short of the bronze medal in the final competition. Mörö ran three runs in three days in Amsterdam, with the top three finishing with two strokes.

The rule immediately caused a strong uproar, but the matter was buried, because after this, two outdoor track value competitions have not been organized in the same year before this summer. What is different about the 2022 program compared to the double Olympics and European Championships in 2016 is that the World Cup competitions with a larger volume were held before the European Championships.

Because of this, many were surprised when the European Athletics Federation introduced the star-favoring rule after a six-year hiatus.

– It hasn’t been long since I tried to find information on whether this rule exists or not. I was under the impression that this did not exist because I could not find anything about it. But that’s where it ended up, Pasi Oksanen comment.

Oksanen is a long-time referee of the International Association of Athletics Federations, who was recently on assignment at the World Junior Championships in Cali, Colombia. He is turned to in matters of the rules infrequently. Although Oksanen implements the line chosen by the decision-makers, he has a personal opinion about the rule.

– The purpose of the rules is to guarantee everyone as equal opportunities as possible. This goes against the sense of justice, that someone is given an advantage. In my opinion, such a rule should not exist, Oksanen states.

According to Oksanen, the way in which the European Athletics Federation EA introduced the rule was already surprising recently.

– EA already announced in the middle of 2015 that the rule would come, but it wasn’t until spring 2016 that a rule change was made that it was even possible in terms of the rules. Exciting order.

as a member of EA’s board of directors Antti Pihlakoski according to the decision made in 2015, the so-called there was consensus on the free ticket. He admits that the rule is not in accordance with the ethos of the sport in all respects.

– As a European Championship organizer, I know that if the best are not there, it reduces the value of the event, Pihlakoski says and refers to the 2012 Helsinki Games.

The story continues after the fact box.

Unlike, for example, the World Cup, there are no cash prizes at the EC level. Pihlakoski heralds the big picture, where European athletics has to be creative under international pressure. This year, between the European Championship and the World Championship, there was also time to compete in the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England.

– The European Championships are an important institution for European athletics across the board. If they get the B-race status they get if the best are missing and there is no prize money, the risk is high. Then you have to have a little eye for the game in order to get the best ones, says Pihlakoski, but says that he is ready to reduce the number of direct semi-final places.

– The face of the sport can be found in the top 6-8.

If the international competitive pressure from the point of view of the European Championship is so strong, should the European Championship go back to the original four-year cycle instead of the current two years?

– I claim that if you ask the Finnish team, you won’t find an athlete who would support it.

– European athletics, above all runners, need European Games, says Pihlakoski.

French Stephane Diagana was one of the most famous stars of the 400 meter hurdles in the 1990s and early 2000s. The 1997 world champion achieved a streak of World Cup medals on the fenced circuit circuit. The success story began in 1994 in Helsinki, where Diagana won her first medal, European Championship bronze. The last individual victory of the career, the EC gold, came in Munich exactly 20 years ago.

Diagana’s record of 47.37 in Lausanne in 1995 lasted as a European record for almost 24 years until Karsten Warholm. The Frenchman also clocked a smooth respectable time of 45.18, which would have been a European Championship medal level every time in his career except for Budapest in 1998 – there it would have been enough for fourth place.

However, running a fenced and smooth track lap was never an issue, but in Munich the trick is now being attempted by the Dutch Femke Bol.

– This helps Femke, but I honestly don’t understand this. If the ulterior motive is that the best have the opportunity to run more distances, it is still not right.

– The rule must be changed because it does not treat athletes equally.

Diagana points out that the current rule treats not only athletes but also sprint sports unequally.

– In 400 meters, the rule has a completely different effect than in 100 meters. Athletes who have to run one start more than others suffer the most in the 400 and 400 meter hurdles.

Diagana does not subscribe to Pihlakoski’s vision of organizing the European Championships with the current system, i.e. every two years. Reserve better in the old one.

– The old four-year cycle was better and gave the event meaning. I think it’s the best way to attract the best.