(ATR) Around the Rings has learned that an athletics program will not be part of the first European Games in Baku, Azerbaijan in 2015.
Despite various approaches from European Olympic Committees chiefs aimed at including athletics in some format, European Athletics president Hansjorg Wirz tells ATR the federation cannot be involved for a number of reasons.
He said the federation’s TV and sponsorship contracts through 2015 and impact on its own events and senior athletes made the Baku Games an unviable proposition.
"We want to see how it develops," Wirz told ATR. "We are always open to discussions. We want to develop the sport for the future but in a way that strengthens our position, not weakens it."
European Athletics is concerned that the continental Games will dilute the importance of its own raft of events, which include the team, indoor and cross-country championships.
Asked if Baku 2015 could turn out to be a missed opportunity for European Athletics, he said: "That is our risk.
"But what we always said is we are open to look at the possibilities if it creates additional value, not only for somebody else but also for us," Wirz added.
Wirz has rejected several offers from the EOC to bring athletics into the 2015 Euro Games program.
One idea was for a team relay event akin to the "IAAF World Relays", the new two-day competition introduced by the International Association of Athletics Federations to take place in the Bahamas in May 2014 and 2015.
European Athletics is unwilling to attempt an untried event that is not first piloted at lower levels of competition.
"To integrate such a competition in Europe we have to have approval [of the congress]. We can’t just add it," Wirz told ATR
"We have another philosophy, a system of how we implement [events]. We never go from nothing to a championship event. We first see how it develops. When the results are good, then it is time to decide if it can be an event at a championships."
The EOC also asked European Athletics to consider staging U-23 events at the European Games.
But sponsorship rights issues tied up with national federations made it unfeasible.
EOC president Pat Hickey had been hopeful that European Athletics could resolve some of its issues to join the inaugural continental Games. Earlier this month, he told ATR that up to 20 sports could be included in the first European Games. Swimming is the other big federation yet to jump on board.
The Irish IOC member dismissed suggestions that the lack of athletics was a major blow for Baku 2015. He said he fully understands Wirz's concerns.
"No, not at all. From the very start we knew we would probably not have athletics and were still prepared to go ahead with the Games," Hickey told ATR. "That is not a worry for us.
"I am confident that by the time of the Games there will be an athletics event. But it won’t be the full show," he added.
Hickey said the "door was still open" for European Athletics if it wished to get involved in Baku 2015.
Baku 2015 organizers have penciled in March to rubberstamp the sports program.
An EOC Coordination Commission for the Games is nearly finalized, he added. The panel is set to be unveiled next week, with the first inspection visit to the Azeri capital slated for late March.
Reported by Mark Bisson
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