European Athletics is offering the chance to win an expenses paid trip for two to this summer’s European Team Championships in Stockholm, Sweden. To be in the draw all one has to do is complete an online survey by 31 March about Women and Leadership in Athletics.

The grand prize winner will be selected by a random draw and will able to choose whether to attend the third edition of the Spar European Team Championships in Stockholm on the18 to the 19 June or else one can join Malta’s team to the third league events taking place on the same days in Iceland. There will also be consolation prizes of European Athletics merchandise as second and third prizes.

This survey, launched in late 2010 as part of an overall project entitled “Closing the Leadership Gender Gap in European Athletics” and funded by the European Union has nine partners, the MAAA included, and is coordinated by the Royal Dutch Athletic Federation (Atletikunie).

It is open to athletes, coaches, volunteers and fans . . . in fact, anyone, male or female, who is interested in athletics is being invited to take part.

The first round of incentive prizes, expense paid trips for two to the 2011 European Athletics Indoor Championship in Paris, were won by Maria Trinidad Cuesta Fernandez from Spain and Lovísa Hreinsdottir from Iceland.

The Project Ambassador Sylvia Barlag, who is a member of the European Athletics Council and a vice-president of Atletikunie, explained that more than 1000 people have already taken the survey but the project team would like to double or triple the participation. To quote Ms Barlag “a large sample and cross section of people close to athletics shall give the findings from the survey the maximum scientific accuracy and will help us design programmes to bring more women into coaching and other leadership positions and ensure the sport continues to grow and become stronger.”

Everyone who has completed the survey so far will also be entered in the new draw.

The survey includes three parts.

Part 1 requires 20-25 minutes to complete, Part 2 takes about 12-15 minutes and Part 3 takes one to three minutes.

After completing Part 1, the survey participants will be automatically contacted by e-mail and invited to do Part 2 and Part 3.

According to Prof John Antonakis of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland, who designed the survey with his research team the questions are based on standard attitudinal research tools that have been often used throughout Europe. Some are sport-related and some are general questions about social issues. The answers will help the project in understanding how people think about the internal culture of athletics, and how this thinking affects the development of women leaders in the sport.

The survey will close on 31 March and the prize draw for all the prizes on offer will be conducted on 5 April. The names of the overall winners will be announced when their availability and choice of event have been confirmed.