European Championships Photo-Finish Data, 1954-1978

1954 (Bern)
The first European Championships meeting for which photo-finish data has
been obtained is the 1954 edition.  Ironically for a venue in the country 
of one of the fore-runners of fully-automatic timing, the camera used by 
Omega on this occasion did not incorporate a timing device, so the only 
data obtainable from the few photographs we have seen is of differentials 
behind the winners.

1958 (Stockholm)
Photo-finish camera used, probably with timer, but the only information
is a rumour of a winning 10.35 for the 100 metres.  There is no reliable 
evidence to support this claim.

1962 (Beograd)
Photo-finish camera used, but no information is known.

Results for subsequent meetings, such as they are, can be found at the
following page references.  

1966 (Budapest)
1969 (Pireás)
1971 (Helsinki)
1974 (Roma)
1978 (Praha)

Only a few snippets exist for 1966 and 1969, but a great deal of data 
for 1971.  Jean-Claude Patinaud located and researched the films for 
these meetings.  In 1974 and 1978 we had official times in hundredths 
for the sprints, but times were rounded off for 800 metres upwards.  
Many of the details from these two editions remain incomplete.

It is hoped to add the 1970 and 1979 editions of the European Junior 
Championships in the near future.

In all these compilations, times in brackets are the official returns
These were manual times up to 1966, but obtained from the photo-finish
films from 1969 onwards.  The timers used in 1966 and 1969 had a delay 
of 0.05sec., so the times on film have been corrected by the addition 
of this factor.

Timing rules for rounding off were altered several times during the 
period covered by these championships, as the following shows :-

I.A.A.F. Rules (fully-automatic timing)
    pre-1964  No formal policy
    1964-70   Timers adjusted by delay of 0.05sec.
              Times rounded off to the nearest tenth
                 e.g. 3:59.95-4:00.04 = 4:00.0
                      4:00.05-4:00.14 = 4:00.1, etc.
              Registration to fifths for events above 1 mile
    1971-76   Timer delay adjustment discontinued
              Registration to fifths for events above 1 mile
    1977-78   Registration in hundredths for events up to 440 yards, 
              and to tenths for track events above 440 yards
    1979-80   Rounding up (instead of to nearest tenth)
                 e.g. 3:59.91-4:00.00 = 4:00.0
                      4:00.01-4:00.10 = 4:00.1, etc.
              Registration unchanged
    1981+     Rounding discontinued for events up to 20km.