The European Athletics Team Championships will feature at this year's European Games - and at the next edition - European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov has told insidethegames ©European Athletics

The modified European Athletics Team Championships which will feature at this summer's European Games in Kraków and Małopolska will be the model for the athletics presence in future editions of the event.

Speaking shortly after being re-elected as European Athletics President, Dobromir Karamarinov told insidethegames that discussions had already taken place to ensure that the Team Championships format would become a staple part of the European Games.

He added that the 2025 edition of the biennial Team Championships was destined for Madrid.

Karamarinov believes that, in the inaugural Baku 2015 edition of the Games, and at the Minsk staging in 2019, athletics was "not presented in the proper way."

He added: "In the first edition in Baku it was just a Third League, more less nothing." 

The second edition in Minsk it was DNA – Dynamic New Athletics - something new, but not exactly what athletics deserved.

“And now for the third edition of the European Games this year it will be the biggest athletics gathering with more than 2,200 athletes in the same place in Silesia," Karamarinov told insidethegames.

"This will put athletics in the proper place in the European Games."

The European Team Championships is set to become an important part of the European Games ©Getty Images
The European Team Championships is set to become an important part of the European Games ©Getty Images

European Athletics will also reap the rewards for committing to the European Games, rather than the rival European Championships, which the sport has withdrawn from for 2026. 

"And of course it will bring a big financial revenue to European Athletics," Karamarinov said.

"This new vision for our European Team Championships as part of the European Games is a big plus.

"It will be not one shot. 

"For sure during the next European Games it will be continued, we have agreed with the leadership of European Games that we will have the same concept, with all divisions involved.

"Meanwhile we have the European Teams Championships every two years and we have already negotiated with the Spanish Federation over the 2025 staging.

“Now we prepare that in two years’ time in Madrid it will be the same format but the final decision will be in July when the Madrid City Council has to approve this concept.

"In 2025 all Divisions will be in the one place, like in Silesia.

"My vision is that we will go for this format every two years."

The for the full interview with Karamarinov, click here.