Speaking in the Czech capital today, Wirz, who is due to step down next month from the role he has held for the last 16 years, claimed the 33rd edition of the continent's "second most important competition" will be a fitting finale to his long term at the helm.

"This will be a great competition," he said.

"We have had optimal preparation from the organisers here after an outstanding couple of years for European athletics.

"But for me it will be my last competition as President, and it is a fitting place to end because long ago I remember sitting in this city watching the 1978 European Athletics Championships here.

"It was my first championships in an official capacity, and 37 years is a long time before coming back to Prague, but in that time we have achieved a lot for athletics in Europe and around the world, I want to thank all of you for your great support."

World pole vault record holder and IAAF World Athlete of the Year Renaud Lavillenie will be in search of another gold at the Prague European Athletics Indoor Championships over this weekend ©AFP/Getty Images

Libor Varhanik, President of the Czech Athletics Federation and the Prague 2015 Organising Committee, promised to provide Wirz with a successful farewell.

"This is the last competition for Hansjörg and we promised to give him a great send-off," he said.

"I can tell you we are ready to do that."

Christian Milz, the EA's director general, added: "We already know this will be a record-breaking edition.

"It will be broadcast live by 29 international broadcasters - a record number - and will be live-streamed on the EA website thanks to our International Partner SPAR.

"With 643 athletes competing we have a record number of entries - an increase of 12 per cent on two years ago.

"We also have 49 out of our 50 member federations represented, not to mention some 900 media and 300 vounteers.

"We want to offer the best ever European Indoor Championships, and I think we will, the motto of the event is written on the posters - 'Oooh!', 'Wow!' 'Yippee!'.

"We look forward to a lot of 'Oooh!' and a lot of 'Wow!' over the next three days."

Lavillenie will be seeking gold, naturally, at a Championships in which he won his first major senior title six years ago in Turin.

Having earned the title World Athlete of the Year for 2014, which he began by surpassing Sergey Bubka's almost 21-year-old record with a clearance of 6.16 in Donetsk, the Frenchman is now showing the kind of consistency which could put that mark in danger.

This year, Lavillenie has already jumped 6.02, 6.01 twice, 6.00 and 5.90 - ominous consistency - but if he should slip, Poland's Piotr Lisek, who has a 5.90 this year, could profit.

Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands, double gold medallist at 100 and 200m in last year's European Athletics outdoor championships and a winner in the IAAF's Continental Cup (pictured) has her sights on the 60m gold in Prague ©Getty Images


Schippers, surprise double gold medallist at the European Athletics Outdoor Championships in Zurich last year, has her eyes set on the 60m, although she will have a battle with Britain's 19-year-old double European junior champion Dina Asher-Smith, who leads this year's rankings with 7.12.

Britain will have high hopes too in the women's 800m where 33-year-old Jenny Meadows, who inherited the European Indoor 2011 gold the following year when the original winner Russia's Yevgeniya Zinurova was retrospectively banned for doping, has the chance to win gold on the day.

Meadows leads the listings with 1min 59.21sec this year - but she faces Czech Republic's Hejnova, the 2013 400m hurdles world champion, who is returning from the injuries which wrecked last season, and is now testing herself at the longer distance.

Meanwhile Hejnova's compatriot Pavel Maslak, prevented by injury from defending his European 400m title last summer, leads the 2015 listings with 45.27sec and is set on defending the European Indoor title he won in Gothenburg two years ago.

Home runner Zuzana Hejnova, pictured winning the 2012 world 400m hurdles title in Moscow, is back after a year of injury to seek another medal in the 800m at the European Athletics Indoor Championships ©Getty Images


There are further high hopes for Britain in the women's pentathlon, where Katerina Johnson-Thompson and 17-year-old world junior champion Morgan Lake will challenge the dominance France's Antoinette Nana Djimou has exerted over this event in the last four years in which she has won two indoor and two outdoor European titles.

The Netherlands' outstanding middle distance talent Sifan Hassan, is seeking a 1500m and 3000m double.

The action got underway tonight with qualifying rounds in the men's long jump, and women's and men's shot put.

The latter competition was headed by Germany's double world champion David Storl, still in search of his first major outdoor gold, who signalled his intentions with an effort of 21.23m.

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