12th European Athletics Championships
The logo of the 1978 European Athletics Championships
Dates	29 August – 3 September
Host city	Prague, Czechoslovakia
Venue	Stadion Evžena Rošického
Level	Senior
Type	Outdoor
Events	40
Participation	1004 athletes from 29 nations
← 1974 Rome 1982 Athens →

The 12th European Athletics Championships were held from 29 August to 3 September 1978 in the Stadion Evžena Rošického in Prague, the capital city of Czechoslovakia (present-day Czech Republic). Contemporaneous reports on the event were given in the Glasgow Herald.^{[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]}

There were a number of disqualifications because of infringements of IAAF doping rules resulting in 18-month bans for shot putter Yevgeniy Mironov, javelin thrower Vasiliy Yershov, and pentathletes Nadiya Tkachenko and Yekaterina Gordiyenko, all competing for the Soviet Union, as well as shot putter Elena Stoyanova from Bulgaria.^[9]

Men's results

Complete results were published.^[10]

Track

1971 |1974 |1978 |1982 |1986 |

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Pietro Mennea  Italy	10.27[nb1]	Eugen Ray  East Germany	10.36	Vladimir Ignatenko  Soviet Union	10.37
200 metres details	Pietro Mennea  Italy	20.16 CR	Olaf Prenzler  East Germany	20.61	Peter Muster   Switzerland	20.64
400 metres details	Franz-Peter Hofmeister  West Germany	45.73	Karel Kolář  Czechoslovakia	45.77	Francis Demarthon  France	45.97
800 metres details	Olaf Beyer  East Germany	1:43.84 CR	Steve Ovett  Great Britain	1:44.09	Sebastian Coe  Great Britain	1:44.76
1500 metres details	Steve Ovett  Great Britain	3:35.59 CR	Eamonn Coghlan  Ireland	3:36.57	David Moorcroft  Great Britain	3:36.70
5000 metres details	Venanzio Ortis  Italy	13:28.57	Markus Ryffel   Switzerland Aleksandr Fedotkin  Soviet Union	13:28.66
10,000 metres details	Martti Vainio  Finland	27:30.99 CR, NR	Venanzio Ortis  Italy	27:31.48	Aleksandras Antipovas  Soviet Union	27:31.50
Marathon details	Leonid Moseyev  Soviet Union	2:11:57.5 CR	Nikolay Penzin  Soviet Union	2:11:59.0	Karel Lismont  Belgium	2:12:07.7
110 metres hurdles details	Thomas Munkelt  East Germany	13.54	Jan Pusty  Poland	13.55	Arto Bryggare  Finland	13.56
400 metres hurdles details	Harald Schmid  West Germany	48.51 CR	Dmitriy Stukalov  Soviet Union	49.72	Vasyl Arkhypenko  Soviet Union	49.77
3000 metres steeplechase details	Bronislaw Malinowski  Poland	8:15.08	Patriz Ilg  West Germany	8:16.92	Ismo Toukonen  Finland	8:18.29
20 kilometres walk details	Roland Wieser  East Germany	1:23:11.5 CR	Pyotr Pochynchuk  Soviet Union	1:23:43.0	Anatoliy Solomin  Soviet Union	1:24:11.5
50 kilometres walk details	Jorge Llopart  Spain	3:53:29.9 CR	Veniamin Soldatenko  Soviet Union	3:55:12.1	Jan Ornoch  Poland	3:55:15.9
4 × 100 metres relay details	Poland Zenon Nowosz Zenon Licznerski Leszek Dunecki Marian Woronin	38.58 CR	East Germany Manfred Kokot Eugen Ray Olaf Prenzler Alexander Thieme	38.78	Soviet Union Sergey Vladimirtsev Nikolay Kolesnikov Aleksandr Aksinin Vladimir Ignatenko	38.82
4 × 400 metres relay details	West Germany Martin Weppler Franz-Peter Hofmeister Bernd Herrmann Harald Schmid	3:02.03 CR	Poland Jerzy Włodarczyk Zbigniew Jaremski Cezary Łapiński Ryszard Podlas	3:03.62	Czechoslovakia Josef Lomický František Brečka Miroslav Tulis Karel Kolář	3:04.99

• ^nb1 Pietro Mennea ran 10.19 in the heats, which was a new championship record.

Field

1971 |1974 |1978 |1982 |1986 |

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump details	Vladimir Yashchenko  Soviet Union	2.30 m CR	Aleksandr Grigoryev  Soviet Union	2.28 m	Rolf Beilschmidt  East Germany	2.28 m
Pole vault details	Vladimir Trofimenko  Soviet Union	5.55 m CR	Antti Kalliomäki  Finland	5.50 m	Rauli Pudas  Finland	5.45 m
Long jump details	Jacques Rousseau  France	8.18 m CR	Nenad Stekić  Yugoslavia	8.12 m	Vladimir Tsepelyov  Soviet Union	8.01 m
Triple jump details	Miloš Srejović  Yugoslavia	16.94 m	Viktor Saneyev  Soviet Union	16.93 m	Anatoliy Piskulin  Soviet Union	16.87 m
†Shot put details	Udo Beyer  East Germany	21.08 m =CR	Aleksandr Baryshnikov  Soviet Union	20.68 m	Wolfgang Schmidt  East Germany	20.30 m
Discus throw details	Wolfgang Schmidt  East Germany	66.82 m CR	Markku Tuokko  Finland	64.90 m	Imrich Bugár  Czechoslovakia	64.66 m
Hammer throw details	Yuriy Sedykh  Soviet Union	77.28 m CR	Roland Steuk  East Germany	77.24 m	Karl-Hans Riehm  West Germany	77.02 m
Javelin throw details	Michael Wessing  West Germany	89.12 m	Nikolay Grebniev  Soviet Union	87.82 m	Wolfgang Hanisch  East Germany	87.66 m
Decathlon details	Aleksandr Grebenyuk  Soviet Union	8340 pts CR	Daley Thompson  Great Britain	8289 pts	Siegfried Stark  East Germany	8208 pts

^†: In shot put, Yevgeniy Mironov initially finished second (20.87m), but was disqualified for an infringement of IAAF doping rules.^[9]

Women's results

Track

1971 |1974 |1978 |1982 |1986 |

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 metres details	Marlies Göhr  East Germany	11.13 =CR	Linda Haglund  Sweden	11.29	Lyudmila Maslakova  Soviet Union	11.31
200 metres details	Lyudmila Kondratyeva  Soviet Union	22.52	Marlies Göhr  East Germany	22.53	Carla Bodendorf  East Germany	22.64
400 metres details	Marita Koch  East Germany	48.94 WR – CR	Christina Brehmer  East Germany	50.38	Irena Szewińska  Poland	50.40
800 metres details	Tatyana Providokhina  Soviet Union	1:55.80 CR	Nadezhda Mushta  Soviet Union	1:55.82	Zoya Rigel  Soviet Union	1:56.57
1500 metres details	Giana Romanova  Soviet Union	3:59.01 CR	Natalia Mărășescu  Romania	3:59.77	Totka Petrova  Bulgaria	4:00.15
3000 metres details	Svetlana Ulmasova  Soviet Union	8:33.16 CR	Natalia Mărășescu  Romania	8:33.53	Grete Waitz  Norway	8:34.33
100 metres hurdles details[nb1]	Johanna Klier  East Germany	12.62	Tatyana Anisimova  Soviet Union	12.67	Gudrun Berend  East Germany	12.73
400 metres hurdles details	Tatyana Zelentsova  Soviet Union	54.89	Silvia Hollmann  West Germany	55.14	Karin Roßley  East Germany	55.36
4 × 100 metres relay details	Vera Anisimova Lyudmila Maslakova Lyudmila Kondratyeva Lyudmila Storozhkova  Soviet Union	42.54	Beverley Goddard Kathy Smallwood Sharon Colyear Sonia Lannaman  Great Britain	42.72	Johanna Klier Monika Hamann Carla Bodendorf Marlies Göhr  East Germany	43.07
4 × 400 metres relay details	Christiane Marquardt Barbara Krug Christina Brehmer Marita Koch  East Germany	3:21.20 CR	Tatyana Prorochenko Nadezhda Mushta Tatyana Providokhina Mariya Kulchunova  Soviet Union	3:22.53	Małgorzata Grajewska Krystyna Kacperczyk Genowefa Błaszak Irena Szewińska  Poland	3:26.76

• ^nb1 Grażyna Rabsztyn (Poland), who was disqualified in the final, ran a championship record of 12.60 in the semifinal.

Field

1971 |1974 |1978 |1982 |1986 |

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
High jump details	Sara Simeoni  Italy	2.01 m WR= – CR	Rosemarie Ackermann  East Germany	1.99 m	Brigitte Holzapfel  West Germany	1.95 m
Long jump details [nb1]	Vilma Bardauskienė  Soviet Union	6.88 m	Angela Voigt  East Germany	6.79 m	Jarmila Nygrýnová  Czechoslovakia	6.69 m
Shot put details	Ilona Slupianek  East Germany	21.41 m CR	Helena Fibingerová  Czechoslovakia	20.86 m	Margitta Droese  East Germany	20.58 m
Discus throw details	Evelin Jahl  East Germany	66.98 m	Margitta Droese  East Germany	64.04 m	Natalya Gorbachova  Soviet Union	63.58 m
Javelin throw details	Ruth Fuchs  East Germany	69.16 m CR	Tessa Sanderson  Great Britain	62.40 m	Ute Hommola  East Germany	62.32 m
‡Pentathlon details	Margit Papp  Hungary	4655 pts	Burglinde Pollak  East Germany	4600 pts	Kristine Nitzsche  East Germany	4599 pts

^‡: In pentathlon, Nadiya Tkachenko (URS) initially finished 1st (4744pts), but was disqualified for an infringement of IAAF doping rules.^[9]

• ^nb1 Vilma Bardauskienė broke the world record with a jump 7.09 metres in the qualification round.

Medal table

  *   Host nation (Czechoslovakia)

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Soviet Union (URS)	12	12	10	34
2	East Germany (GDR)	12	10	11	33
3	West Germany (FRG)	4	2	2	8
4	Italy (ITA)	4	1	0	5
5	Poland (POL)	2	2	3	7
6	Great Britain (GBR)	1	4	2	7
7	Finland (FIN)	1	2	3	6
8	Yugoslavia (YUG)	1	1	0	2
9	France (FRA)	1	0	1	2
10	Hungary (HUN)	1	0	0	1
	Spain (ESP)	1	0	0	1
12	Czechoslovakia (TCH)*	0	2	3	5
13	Romania (ROU)	0	2	0	2
14	Switzerland (SUI)	0	1	1	2
15	Ireland (IRL)	0	1	0	1
	Sweden (SWE)	0	1	0	1
17	Belgium (BEL)	0	0	1	1
	Bulgaria (BUL)	0	0	1	1
	Norway (NOR)	0	0	1	1
Totals (19 entries)		40	41	39	120

Participation

According to an unofficial count, 847 athletes from 30 countries participated in the event, 157 athletes less than the official number of 1004, and one country more than the official number of 29 as published.^[11] The significantly higher official number might include coaches and/or officials.