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| European Athletics Championships: 100 days to go |
Today marks 100 days to go until the opening ceremony for the 2006 European
Athletics Championships on Sunday 6 August.
The opening ceremony will take place at Götaplatsen in the centre of
Gothenburg, the first time it has taken place outside the stadium for the
European Athletics Championships. World triple jump record holder Jonathan
Edwards (GBR) will be the Master of Ceremonies. The Championship City
Festival will ensure that the cultural activity continues at ten venues
across the city throughout the week of the event.
The athletics competition starts on 7 August in the Ullevi Stadium and
continues until 13 August. The preliminary entries for the Championships
have now closed and around 1400 athletes from a record 48 countries are
registered to compete.
Speaking at a press conference in Gothenburg on Friday 28 April, EAA
President Hansjörg Wirz said:
\"The European Athletics Championships is very important for our movement.
It is the shop window for athletics in Europe and when our sport reaches
its largest audience. The event is the highlight of our four-year
competition programme and attracts a massive amount of interest from media,
sponsors and the public.
\"We are greatly looking forward to being in Gothenburg in August for this
year's Championships which will take place both inside and outside of the
stadium. In this way the whole of the city's population will be integrated
into and touched by the event and there will be an enjoyable atmosphere not
only in the stadium, but in the whole city.
\"Staging the Championships is a great organisational challenge and I
extend my thanks to the Organising Committee under the leadership of Toralf
Nilsson which is working hard to make the event a success. All the
elements of preparation give the picture of an outstanding European
Athletics Championships in Gothenburg in August.\"
Over half the available tickets for the event have already been sold and a
survey conducted in April showed that 80% of the population of Gothenburg
is now aware that the European Athletics Championships will take place in
the city. This represents a significant increase from when the last
awareness survey was carried out in September 2005.
Medals and Podium presented
The medals and podium for the European Athletics Championships were
presented for the first time today.
The medals are designed by renowned Swedish artist Ulla Ohlson, who lives
and works in Gothenburg. The medals, which have been hand made from pure
Swedish crystal at the Lindshammar Glasbruk glass factory, transform the
look of the bare rock formations in the Gothenburg archipelago into glass.
The victory podium symbolises the line between the start and finish of a
race and has been designed by Swede Leon Lewandowski. The curved shape
resembles the timeless architecture of the Ullevi Stadium and the curves of
the Championships' logo. The see-through plates create the impression that
the medallists are suspended in the air during the medal ceremony.
More information about the European Athletics Championships Göteborg 2006
is available at
http://www.european-athletics.org and
http://www.goteborg2006.com
Source: EAA
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