Svein Arne Hansen said that the European Athletics Championships will bring the "good times" back.GETTY IMAGES
European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen said that the European Athletics Championships, which began in Berlin on Monday, will be the "strongest ever seen" and will help bring the "good times" back to an ailing sport, according to Ian Chadband of REUTERS. The 24th edition of the 84-year-old event, which for the first time will "come under the umbrella" of the new multi-sport European Championships being co-hosted by Glasgow and Berlin, comes with the sport "trying to emerge from a grim period." The event features seven reigning Olympic champions, 15 world champions and 34 winners from the last championships in Amsterdam two years ago. Hansen said, "I think it's the strongest championships we have ever seen." There will again be no Russian team in Berlin, with its national federation still suspended. A group of 29 Russians will compete as "Authorised Neutral Athletes" in Berlin. Hansen: "Athletics in the world is very much coming out of that dark period with Russia. We don't want the cheating. The Russian athletes who will be in competition in Berlin are clean" (REUTERS, 8/5).
