It is organised by the International Association of Ultrarunners (IAU) and was first held in 1992 – five years after the launched of the World Championships for the distance.
[2] Winschoten in the Netherlands has been a frequent host of the event, doing so ten times, including the first three editions.
)[3] The championships has almost exclusively been contested in Western Europe, with the sole exception being the 2003 event in Russia.
[4] The editions of the competition from 2007 to 2012 were jointly held alongside the World Championships, with the European athletes within that race being ranked separately for the continental event.
Three-time champion Jaroslaw Janicki of Poland is the next most successful and Kajsa Berg is the only woman to have won the championships three times.