A record 1370 athletes - 739 men - 631 women - from 48 countries will compete.

48 is the highest number of countries ever to compete at the event, beating the record set in Munich four years ago by one. Only Armenia and Liechtenstein will not be represented in Gothenburg. 1370 athletes represents over 100 more than competed at the 1998 and 2002 Championships.

The biggest team is Russia with 118 athletes (56 men and 62 women) and Germany (90), Spain (87), France (85), Great Britain (85) and Italy (83) all also have teams numbering over 80 athletes.
The host nation Sweden will have a team of 69 athletes which is their biggest team ever in a European Atletics Championships.

On Sunday 6 August at 8.00pm, Göteborg will treat everyone to a spectacular opening ceremony for the European Athletics Championships 2006 at Götaplatsen in the city centre. This will be the first time that the championships have been officially opened outside the stadium. Ronan Keating and several other popular performers will be entertaining the crowd. The orchestra for the evening is naturally the Göteborg Symphony Orchestra, and Helena Paparizou will be performing the official championship song, “Heroes”.

Alongside the athletics taking place at Ullevi stadium, the city is putting on an impressive programme of entertainment that has something for everyone. The big City Festival stages will transform streets and squares into festival venues. The championships themselves begin at Ullevi on 7 August, but the City Festival kicks off earlier on 4 August and continues until 13 August.

For further details about Gothenburg click here.