Balkan Athletics Championships

Balkan Athletics Championships
Greek: Βαλκανικοί Αγώνες

Poster of the first Balkan Games (1929)
First event	1929
Occur every	year (except 1941–1952, 1987, 1991, 1993 and 1995)
Last event	2018
Next event	2019
Purpose	Athletics event for nations of the Balkans
Website	Official website

The Balkan Athletics Championships or Balkan Games is a regional athletics competition held between nations from the Balkans and organized by Balkan Athletics. The first games were held in Athens in 1929, and the most recent were being held in Stara Zagora in 2018.

Organization

The Games of 1929 were unofficial, and organized by the Hellenic Amateur Athletic Association (SEGAS). They became formalized after 1930 and have been held regularly since, with the exception of the 1940–1953 period due to the Second World War and post-war turmoil. In 1946 and 1947, unofficial Games were organized, under the name Balkan and Central European Games, in which Czechoslovakia, Poland and Hungary (1947) also participated.

SEGAS were also central to the creation of the Balkan Athletics Indoor Championships in 1994 – a sister indoor event to the main outdoor competition.

Nations

• Greece (from 1929)
• Romania (from 1929)
• Bulgaria (from 1929)
• Turkey (from 1931)
• Albania (from 1946)
• Slovenia (from 1992)
• Croatia (from 1992)
• North Macedonia (from 1992)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina (from 1992)
• Montenegro (from 2006)
• Serbia (from 2006)
• Armenia (from 2013)
• Cyprus (from 2014)
• Slovenia (from 2014)
• Georgia (from 2014)
• Israel (from 2015)
• Kosovo (from 2016)

Former nations

• Kingdom of Yugoslavia (1929-1940)/
  Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (1953-1990)
• Serbia and Montenegro (1992-2005)

Editions

Number Year Host City Country Events 1929 Athens Greece 1 1930 Athens Greece 2 1931 Athens Greece 3 1932 Athens Greece 4 1933 Athens Greece 5 1934 Zagreb Yugoslavia 6 1935 Istanbul Turkey 7 1936 Athens Greece 8 1937 Bucharest Romania 9 1938 Belgrade Yugoslavia 10 1939 Athens Greece 11 1940 Istanbul Turkey 1946 Tirana Albania 1947 Bucharest Romania 12 1953 Athens Greece 13 1954 Belgrade Yugoslavia 14 1955 Istanbul Turkey 15 1956 Belgrade Yugoslavia 16 1957 Athens Greece 17 1958 Sofia Bulgaria 18 1959 Bucharest Romania 19 1960 Athens Greece 20 1961 Belgrade Yugoslavia 21 1962 Ankara Turkey 22 1963 Sofia Bulgaria 23 1964 Bucharest Romania 24 1965 Piraeus Greece 25 1966 Sarajevo Yugoslavia 26 1967 Istanbul Turkey 27 1968 Piraeus Greece 28 1969 Sofia Bulgaria 29 1970 Bucharest Romania 30 1971 Zagreb Yugoslavia 31 1972 Izmir Turkey 32 1973 Piraeus Greece 33 1974 Sofia Bulgaria 34 1975 Bucharest Romania 35 1976 Celje Yugoslavia 36 1977 Ankara Turkey 37 1978 Thessaloniki Greece 38 1979 Piraeus Greece 39 1980 Sofia Bulgaria 40 1981 Sarajevo Yugoslavia 41 1982 Bucharest Romania 42 1983 Izmir Turkey 43 1984 Athens Greece 44 1985 Stara Zagora Bulgaria 45 1986 Ljubljana Yugoslavia 46 1988 Ankara Turkey 47 1989 Serres Greece 48 1990 Istanbul Turkey 49 1992 Sofia Bulgaria 50 1994 Trikala Greece

Number Year Host City Country Events 51 1996 Niš Yugoslavia 52 1997 Athens Greece 53 1998 Belgrade Yugoslavia 54 1999 Istanbul Turkey 55 2000 Kavala Greece 56 2001 Trikala Greece 57 2002 Bucharest Romania 58 2003 Thiva Greece 59 2004 Istanbul Turkey 60 2005 Novi Sad Serbia and Montenegro 61 2006 Athens Greece 62 2007 Plovdiv Bulgaria 63 2008 Bar Montenegro 64 2009 Izmir Turkey 65 2010 Larisa Greece 66 2011 Stara Zagora Bulgaria 67 2012 Alexandroupoli Greece 68 2013 Stara Zagora Bulgaria 69 2014 Pitești Romania 70 2015 Pitești Romania 71 2016 Pitești Romania 72 2017 Novi Pazar Serbia 73 2018 Stara Zagora Bulgaria 42 74 2019 [[]] {{}} 75 2020 [[]] {{}}

All time medal table

from 1930 to 2019.

Championships records

Men

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Place	Ref
100 m	10.11 (+0.5 m/s)	Jak Ali Harvey	Turkey	1 August 2015	Pitești
200 m	20.53 (+2.0 m/s)	Anastasios Goussis	Greece	13 July 2003	Thebes, Greece
400 m	45.54	Željko Knapić	Yugoslavia	1979	Athens
800 m	1:45.73	Luciano Sušanj	Yugoslavia	2 August 1974	Sofia
1 500 m	3:40.40	Petre Lupan	Romania	5 August 1972	Izmir
5 000 m	13:42.43	Michalis Kousis	Greece	1978	Thessaloniki
3000 m steeplechase	8:22.77	Florin Ionescu	Romania	28 juin 1997	Athens
110 m hurdles	13.52 (-0.5 m/s)	Zhivko Videnov	Bulgaria	25 August 2002	Bucharest
400 m hurdles	49.36	Athanasios Kalogiannis	Greece	17 July 1998	Ankara
4 × 100 m relay	39.22		Bulgaria	1985	Stara Zagora
4 × 400 m relay	3:03.94		Yugoslavia	17 July 1988	Ankara
High jump	2.31 m	Sorin Matei	Romania	16 July 1988	Ankara
Pole vault	5.65 m	Galin Nikov Robert Renner	Bulgaria Slovenia	5 July 1992 2 August 2015	Sofia Pitești
Long jump	8.18 m (NWI)	Konstadínos Koukodímos	Greece	4 July 1992	Sofia
Triple jump	17.24 m	Marian Oprea	Romania	13 July 2003 28 July 2013	Thebes, Greece Stara Zagora
Shot put	20.96 m	Andrei Gag	Romania	2 August 2015	Pitești
Discus throw	65.44 m	Ion Zamfirache	Romania	15 August 1982	Bucharest
Javelin throw	79.32 m	Milan Stijepović	Yugoslavia	16 July 1988	Ankara
Hammer throw	79.16 m	Aléxandros Papadimitríou	Greece	12 July 2003	Thebes, Greece
Decathlon	7995 pts	Saša Karan	Yugoslavia	1990	Istanbul

Women

Event	Record	Athlete	Nationality	Date	Place	Ref
100 m	10.96 (+0.8 m/s)	Ivet Lalova	Bulgaria	2 July 2011	Sliven
200 m	22.58	Anelia Nuneva	Bulgaria	1986	Ljubljana
400 m	50.98	Jelica Pavličić	Yugoslavia	3 August 1974	Sofia
800 m	1:56.42	Paula Ivan	Romania	16 July 1988	Ankara
1500 m	4:04.56	Corina Dumbrăvean	Romania	24 July 2005	Novi Sad
5000 m	15:27.33	Iulia Olteanu	Romania	1997	Athens
3000 m steeplechase	9:33.41	Silvia Danekova	Bulgaria	1 August 2015	Pitești
100 m hurdles	12.26	Yordanka Donkova	Bulgaria	7 September 1986	Ljubljana
400 m hurdles	54.23	Vania Stambolova	Bulgaria	2 July 2011	Sliven
4 × 100 m relay	42.89		Bulgaria	1988	Ankara
4 × 400 m relay	3:27.39		Romania	1985	Stara Zagora
High jump	2.01 m	Stefka Kostadinova	Bulgaria	6 September 1986	Ljubljana
Pole vault	4.45 m	Nikoléta Kiriakopoúlou	Greece	19 July 2008	Argos Orestiko
Long jump	7.14 m (+1.2 m/s)	Mirela Dulgheru	Romania	5 July 1992	Sofia
Triple jump	14.60 m (+1.7 m/s)	Paraskevi Papachristou	Greece	20 July 2018	Stara Zagora
Shot put	21.11 m	Verzhinia Veselinova	Bulgaria	14 June 1980	Sofia
Discus throw	70.20 m	Daniela Costian	Romania	17 July 1988	Ankara
Hammer throw	73.97 m	Zalina Marghieva	Moldova	2 August 2015	Pitești
Javelin throw	60.60 m	Marija Vučenović	Serbia	20 July 2018	Stara Zagora
Heptathlon	6304 pts	Emilia Dimitrova	Bulgaria	7 September 1986	Ljubljana

1940 athlete naming

The 1940 shot put champion was listed as Arat Ararat from Turkey. The birth name of this athlete was Sokratis Ioannidis, a Greek Orthodox born in Istanbul. Due to political friction between Turkey and Greece at that time, the Turks decided it would be more politically correct to change his name to Arat Ararat. This was the name he was known by in the athletic circles.

See also

• Balkan Cup

External links

• BALKAN GAMES/CHAMPIONSHIPS
• Balkan Athletics