21st June 2010 07:58
The projects, which document work contributing to the development of one or more aspects of athletics, will be judged in four themed categories - Promotion, Coaching, Technology and Sustainability – plus an Open category. The judging criteria will be quality and relevance to the sport.
“We are delighted with this year’s response and I would like to thank everyone who entered the competition for their efforts,” said Sylvia Barlag, the European Athletics Council Member who chairs the awards jury.
“The fact that more people from more countries than ever are willing to share good ideas through this programme underlines both the creativity of people associated with our sport and the leadership role of European Athletics in stimulating and promoting innovation.”
The seventh edition of the biennial Innovation Awards competition, established in 1998 as the EAA Science Awards, was open to all Europeans and attracted entries from a wide range of project teams and individuals, including university researchers, students, coaches and sports leaders.
The jury is expected to announce the category winners in late August.
The category winners will advance to the final round in which the overall winner will be selected. The 10,000 Swiss franc prize will be presented to the winning project leader at the European Athletics Convention on 16 October.
The winning project in the previous edition, in 2008, was submitted by Carl Askling and Alf Thorstensen from the Swedish School of Sport and Health Sciences at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm and was entitled “Hamstring Muscle Strain in Sprinters.”