3 more in May, then 7 in June !

Dear friend,

The EAP started early in south of Italy and now we are entering the hot phase of the season without indulgence.

It's time to compete !

From next week, on Sunday May 22, we offer you the Castiglione della Pescaia meeting (in Grosseto) (ITA) which displays an international line-up of all respect, under the new label of the World Athletics Continental Tour / Challenger.

On Saturday 28 May, Belfast Internationalwill celebrate as it should be the 50th anniversary of the Olympic Gold medal (it was in Munich 1972) of their national hero, Mary Peters in the pentathlon, to whom the stadium is dedicated to her.

The next day, Sunday May 29, Palafrugell (ESP) will host a quality meeting, with several groups of international athletes, some of whom will also have the opportunity to take part in the relays organized as part of the Catalan open youth championships.

On Wednesday June 1 and Thursday June 2, Codroipo (ITA) hosts its meeting organized over two days and on two different tracks (San Vito al Tagliamento). This meeting, as a tradition, will also offer several disciplines dedicated to Paralympic athletes.

Two days later, on Saturday June 4, Hungary, future headquarters of the 2023 world championships, will host its usual Budapest Open meeting.

We are taking a quick leap to go to England, to Loughborough (UK) which, after a two-year stoppage due to the pandemic, will host the LEAP "Loughbourgh European Athletics Permit" meeting on June 6, Whit Monday.
Saturday 11 will be the turn of the 34th edition ATLETICAGENEVE (SWI), World Athletics Continental Tour / Bronze which already foresees a dense participation of national 4x100m relay teams. But the youngest can have their own meeting in Biella (ITA) on the same day.

From Geneva we will go straight to Celle Ligure (ITA) for their meeting newly labeled World Athletics Continental Tour / Challenger.

It's a particularly and exceptionally dense schedule, but it can have the advantage of allowing certain athletes to do two, three or four meetings in a row.

It is in all that we hope to thus offer enriching international experiences in different countries to many athletes, of whom ever more are those who choose us coming from other continents.

The development and promotion of athletics which is so important to us goes through this and, even the safeguard of our sport, against the ranking system which does not convince us at all.

The point system, instead of being an incentive, results in a stressful system, creating unfair treatment and therefore the exclusion of however meritorious athletes from the international scene.

We will take the time to discuss this subject further.

For the moment, let's kick off this period of completion that we have been waiting for a long time and which, we hope, sees the barriers of the pandemic definitively behind us.

Saturday June 18, it will be the turn of Nivelles (BEL) for their European meeting.

It will finally be possible to breathe for a month, until the meeting in Malta (MLT), on July 16, since the combined event meeting in Hexham (UK) has just been postponed to September, on a date yet to be determined.

But we will have the opportunity to talk about it again!

It's a particularly and exceptionally dense schedule, but it can have the advantage of allowing certain athletes to do two, three or four meetings in a row.

In any case, this is what we hope to offer: enriching international experiences in different countries to many athletes. Ever more numerous are those who come from other continents in small groups and who choose us precisely for the fact of being a "circuit".

World Rankings ...

The development and promotion of athletics, which is so important to us, comes up against this ranking system. How can we conceive that the same performance is better rated according to the type of meeting and the place in this meeting in particular?

How is it acceptable that athletes who performed less well but in meetings considered more "important" have a better ranking than stronger athletes but who did not have the chance to be engaged in certain meetings?

Our sport is THE precise sport par excellence. Everything is measured.

Frankly what do you think dear friend, of this system which in the end falsifies these measures,... while everyone says they fight against all forms of cheating...?

Defending the values of developing and promoting our sport and safeguarding it, the EAP circuit positions itself against the ranking system because it does not convince us at all.

Perhaps the basic principle is laudable, but its application is creating unequal treatment.

The point system, instead of being an incentive, results in a stressful system, creating unfair treatment and therefore the exclusion of however meritorious athletes from the international scene.

But we will have the opportunity to talk about this important subject again!

For the moment, let's kick off this period of competition that we have been waiting for a long time and which, we hope, sees the barriers of the pandemic definitively behind us.

In behalf fo the EAP Circuit, I wish you all, meeting organisers, volunteers, coaches and managers an excellent season !

Pablo CASSINA

EAP President