The 2007 European Athletes of the Year will be announced during next month's European Athletics Calendar Conference Dinner in Malta. This will be hosted jointly by the European Athletics Association (EAA) and the Malta Amateur Athletics Association (MAAA), at the La Vallette Hall, Valletta, on October 12.
Furthermore, European Athletics has just announced a new award, entitled the Waterford European Crystal Rising Star.
Speaking about this new award, European Athletics president Hansjorg Wirz said: "European Athletics has always focused resources on the development of the next generation of athletes.
"2007 was a special year for the youth of Europe as we introduced an U-23 category at our European Cross Country Championships and held very successful Junior and U-23 Championships in Hengelo and Debrecen respectively.
"I think you will find a number of future olympic and world champions on the nomination form and we look forward to seeing who will win the inaugural Waterford Crystal European Athletics Rising Star Awards for 2007."
Winners will be decided by votes from the general public, media, European Athletics member federations, and a panel of experts, with the results from each group of voters counting for one quarter of the athlete's final score.
Each voter must select their five preferred athletes and rank them in order of priority.
Voting takes place on the European Athletics website until September 17. The online poll to choose the winners of the 2007 Waterford Crystal European Athletics Rising Star is now open on website www.european-athletics.org.
Nordic Sport for EAA Malta conference
Meanwhile, Nordic Sport, the Swedish company which manufactures high-quality, IAAF-approved Track and Field equipment recently confirmed to MAAA president Anthony Chircop that they will be attending at the European Athletics Malta Conference.
The EAA conference is being held at a local hotel from October 11-14.
Nordic Sport will be represented by their managing director, Andreas Eriksson, and E. Lundkvist, sales manager.