A total of 68 young leaders participated in the fifth installment of the Forum, a five-day educational event that aimed to equip young people to design and deliver projects that benefit the grassroots of athletics and local communities.

It was first held in Gothenburg in 2006, followed by Barcelona in 2010, Helsinki in 2012 and Zurich in 2014.

Meadows, a world and European medallist over 800 metres, was today's guest interviewee and insisted the Forum should be replicated on a wider scale.

"This has been going for 10 years, which is absolutely great and I think it might be another 10 years until we see it in fruition - we actually see what you guys have generated," she said.

"This is happening at a European level which is fantastic, but this has to happen at a global level.

"You guys are going to be the ones who are hopefully the next leaders in our sport and leadership is so important."

Meadows announced her retirement earlier this week after an injury at the European Championships here in the Dutch capital ended her hopes of competing at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games. 

The 35-year-old missed out on the 800m final on Thursday (July 7) after suffering a hamstring injury in the heats.

She now wants to mentor young athletes and be a "real advocate" for anti-doping campaigns.

"I always think from an athlete’s point of view, you can be consumed in a bubble and not really realise what other people think," said the Briton, who was joined by husband Trevor Painter, an athletics coach, at the Forum.

"So I’ve got a lot of ideas how the sport can be improved from an athlete’s point of view, giving young people the belief that they can win and they can win cleanly."

She added: "It’s just about how we can change the whole culture perspective of our sport.

"A number of Federations do anti-doping courses which is absolutely fantastic, but I think you would be actually surprised at the lack of them probably and the lack of quality maybe.

"I would just really love to ensure that every European nation at least had that instruction, and had that system in place."

Following the interview with Meadows, the young leaders took part in a workshop on the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, led by European Non-Governmental Sports Organisation (ENGSO) Youth.

This was followed by a session entitled "What’s next?", which looked at the future possibilities for the young leaders beyond the Forum.

Today’s proceedings concluded with a Forum evaluation and final declaration approval, as well as the awarding of prizes for the best pre-Forum individual displays. 

Spain's Camilla Jane Lovel took the prize for the best video, while Britain's Tobias Nwenwu and Belarus' Maryia Badzich won the awards for best 90-second presentation and best display respectively.

The next edition of the European Athletics Young Leaders Forum is due to take place during the continental governing body’s 2018 Championships in Berlin.

Xicu Colomar, who was influential in organising this year’s event, concluded by telling participants that "this is not the end, it’s just the beginning".