Santry Demesne put forward at successful Bidding Seminar for future events held in Lausanne In a welcome sign of the times for competitive bidding contests for European Athletics Championships, four cities have submitted bids to host the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2011 while three have done likewise for the European Cross Country Championships in 2009. The cities of Paris, (FRA) Gothenburg, (SWE) Apeldoorn, (NED) and Leipzig, (GER) are hoping to stage the European Athletics Indoor Championships in 2011 while Dublin (IRL), Bydgoszcz (POL) and either Bordeaux or Carcassonne (FRA) are hoping to stage European Cross Country Championships in 2009. All seven attended a bidding seminar organised by the European Athletics in Lausanne yesterday, with the purpose being to set out the basics of the agreement between European Athletics and the Local Organising Committee and to ensure that LOC responsibilities are clear to the bidding federations and cities. European Athletics Director General Christian Milz opened the seminar and expressed his pleasure that so many cities were interested in hosting these important championships. Information on all the aspects required for a successful bid and subsequent organisation of a European Athletics Championships were presented by European Athletics Events Manager Ivan Khodabakhsh, Communication Manager Pierce O'Callaghan, Competition Manager Celia Mendes and Marketing Manager Lars Kaiser along with specialist presentations from Bernadette Brun Brenger and Weronika Maslowska from the European Athletics Events Team. The seminar was a valuable opportunity for participants to raise issues and questions and the delegations felt that the seminar had been worthwhile and would assist them to prepare their bids. Toralf Nilsson, who headed up the most successful European Athletics Championships in history in Gothenburg last August said "We are very happy to be here and get all the necessary information first hand to prepare our bid. Although myself and my team have gained a lot of valuable experience for an outdoor championship event, the demands and venues are completely different for an indoor event so it was a great opportunity to get more information." The General Director of the French Athletics Federation, Jean Gracia, added: "France has hosted a number of competitions at European level and along with generous support from our municipal partners are keen to do more in the future." Georg Kemper, who headed up the German delegation said "Leipzig has an excellent track record of hosting European indoor events and I have no doubt that we would host a fantastic championship" while Rien van Haperan said "The Netherlands is hosting the European Athletics Junior Championships in Hengelo this summer and has hosted a very successful Cross country Championships in Tilburg two-years-ago and I have no doubt would put on the best ever European Athletics Indoor Championships in Apeldoorn in four years time" Liam Hennessy, who headed the Irish Delegation said "There has been a noticeable increase in the professionalism of recent European Athletics events and after seeing the presentations today it is easy to see why. The European Cross Country Championships is where it is at for most European Countries and 2009 will be the 30th anniversary of John Treacy's second win in the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Limerick in 1979 so we are keen to mark that success with the Europeans in Dublin, with the venue, and all the hotels within 10 minutes of Dublin airport" The decision on the venues will take place at the European Athletics Council Meeting in autumn 2007. European-Athletics