European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen travelled from Denmark to Lithuania to meet with representatives of the Baltic federations in the municipality of Palanga, upon invitation of the city mayorŠarÅ«nas Vaitkus on Monday 5 October.
The meeting was scheduled to learn more about the current situation in the Baltic region and the priorities of the Estonian, Latvian and Lithuanian federations. They also discussed the coordination of the competition calendar in the three countries.
President Hansen then presented some of his ideas for the future of European Athletics and spoke about the early work that has been accomplished since he was elected in April 2015.
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Taking a break from their discussions, the group visited a training centre in Palanga where members of the Lithuanian athletics team have just begun preparations for the coming season.
“There is a strong tradition of athletics in the Baltic countries and we are thankful for having hosted several of our main events over the past few years,” said Hansen.
“We look forward to strengthening our relationship by working together to develop the new cornerstones of athletics across the continent.”
Several events have been organised in the Baltic countries in recent years with the European Athletics Convention, Team Championships First League, U23 and Junior Championships in Tallinn, and European Athletics Team Championships Second League in Riga 2014 and Kaunas 2013. The next European Athletics Congress will be in Vilnius in 2017.
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