Budapest bidding to host 2026 track and field European championships

Photo: KÉSZ Csoport

European Athletics representatives recently visited the cities of Budapest and Birmingham after the Hungarian Athletics Association (Magyar Atlétikai Szövetség) and UK Athletics had been confirmed as the two bidding Member Federations looking to host the 2026 European Athletics Championships, the European Athletics Association (EAA) said on Monday.

“We have two excellent candidates for the 2026 European Athletics Championships, with both potential Local Organising Committees having great experience staging major outdoor athletics events. They also have excellent stadia and either one of them would make an excellent host,” said European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov.

“Birmingham will stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games and Budapest will be the host of the 2023 World Athletics Championships and so by 2026 they will be able to draw on these experiences. In the past, these cities have also staged outstanding global and continental events and they both have a great legacy in this respect,” added Karamarinov.

“European Athletics would also like to confirm, following a recent European Athletics Council decision, that the 2026 European Athletics Championships will be organised as a stand-alone event like that in Rome in two years time,” commented European Athletics CEO Christian Milz.

“The involvement and cooperation with the host member federation is especially important for European Athletics at our major events and we believe being independent, as the European Athletics Championships were until 2016, will strengthen this relationship as well as help create a special athletics experience for the competitors, athletics fans, and every other stakeholder in our sport, such as commercial partners, and provide enhanced international visibility and profile,” added Milz.

Budapest was the first of the two 2026 candidates to receive European Athletics representatives and was visited on 7-8 June, followed immediately by the delegation visiting Birmingham on 9-10 June.

A decision about which city will stage 2026 European Athletics Championships will be made by the European Athletics Council in November 2022.

As we wrote before, World Athletics President Sebastian Coe visited Hungary’s National Athletics Centre, under construction in the south of the capital, read details HERE.