The 1979 European Cup was the seventh edition of the European Cup of athletics.^[1]

The "A" Finals were held in Turin, Italy. The first two teams qualified for the 1979 IAAF World Cup.

Held in Turin on 4 and 5 August.^[2]

Men Pos. Nation Points 1  East Germany 125 2  Soviet Union 114 3  West Germany 110 4  Poland 90 5  Great Britain 82 6  Italy 79 7  France 70.5 8  Yugoslavia 49.5

Women Pos. Nation Points 1  East Germany 102 2  Soviet Union 100 3  Bulgaria 76 4  Great Britain 62 5  Romania 58  West Germany 58 7  Poland 55 8  Italy 29

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m (Wind: +1.3 m/s)	Pietro Mennea  Italy	10.15	Marian Woronin  Poland	10.16	Allan Wells  Great Britain	10.19
200 m (Wind: +2.2 m/s)	Allan Wells  Great Britain	20.29w	Pietro Mennea  Italy	20.31w	Marian Woronin  Poland	20.43w
400 m	Harald Schmid  West Germany	45.31	Mauro Zuliani  Italy	45.35	Andreas Knebel  East Germany	45.76
800 m	Sebastian Coe  Great Britain	1:47.28	Dragan Životić  Yugoslavia	1:48.03	Willi Wülbeck  West Germany	1:48.11
1500 m	Jürgen Straub  East Germany	3:36.27 CR	Thomas Wessinghage  West Germany	3:36.40	Graham Williamson  Great Britain	3:38.34
5000 m	Hansjörg Kunze  East Germany	14:12.88	Aleksandr Fedotkin  Soviet Union	14:13.97	Mike McLeod  Great Britain	14:15.91
10,000 m	Brendan Foster  Great Britain	28:22.86	Aleksandras Antipovas  Soviet Union	28:40.32	Frank Zimmermann  West Germany	28:42.09
3000 m steeplechase	Mariano Scartezzini  Italy	8:22.74	Michael Karst  West Germany	8:23.75	Anatoliy Dimov  Soviet Union	8:25.87
110 m hurdles (Wind: +1.3 m/s)	Thomas Munkelt  East Germany	13.37 CR	Aleksandr Puchkov  Soviet Union	13.56	Jan Pusty  Poland	13.74
400 m hurdles	Harald Schmid  West Germany	47.85 CR, AR, NR	Vasiliy Arkhipenko  Soviet Union	48.35	Volker Beck  East Germany	48.58
4 × 100 m	Poland Krzysztof Zwoliński Zenon Licznerski Leszek Dunecki Marian Woronin	38.47 CR	East Germany Klaus-Dieter Kurrat Eugen Ray Olaf Prenzler Alexander Thieme	38.70	France Patrick Barré Pascal Barré Lucien Sainte-Rose Hermann Panzo	38.71
4 × 400 m	West Germany Lothar Krieg Franz-Peter Hofmeister Hartmut Weber Harald Schmid	3:01.91	East Germany Udo Bauer Frank Schaffer Frank Richter Volker Beck	3:02.15	Soviet Union Viktor Burakov Remigijus Valiulis Vyacheslav Dotsenko Nikolay Chernetskiy	3:02.35
High jump	Dietmar Mögenburg  West Germany	2.32 CR	Rolf Beilschmidt  East Germany	2.30	Aleksandr Grigoryev  Soviet Union	2.24
Pole vault	Konstantin Volkov  Soviet Union	5.60	Patrick Abada  France	5.60	Władysław Kozakiewicz  Poland	5.55
Long jump	Lutz Dombrowski  East Germany	8.31 CR	Grzegorz Cybulski  Poland	8.03	Valeriy Podluzhniy  Soviet Union	7.95
Triple jump	Bernard Lamitié  France	16.94	Roberto Mazzucato  Italy	16.92	Anatoliy Piskulin  Soviet Union	16.91
Shot put	Udo Beyer  East Germany	21.13	Ralf Reichenbach  West Germany	20.27	Aleksandr Baryshnikov  Soviet Union	20.25
Discus throw	Wolfgang Schmidt  East Germany	66.76	Alwin Wagner  West Germany	62.96	Ihor Duhinets  Soviet Union	62.72
Hammer throw	Karl-Hans Riehm  West Germany	78.66	Sergey Litvinov  Soviet Union	76.90	Roland Steuk  East Germany	75.76
Javelin throw	Wolfgang Hanisch  East Germany	88.68	Michael Wessing  West Germany	87.38	Aleksandr Makarov  Soviet Union	82.26
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m (Wind: +0.3 m/s)	Marlies Göhr  East Germany	11.03 CR	Lyudmila Kondratyeva  Soviet Union	11.15	Annegret Richter  West Germany	11.22
200 m (Wind: +0.2 m/s)	Lyudmila Kondratyeva  Soviet Union	22.40 CR	Marlies Göhr  East Germany	22.50	Annegret Richter  West Germany	22.75
400 m	Marita Koch  East Germany	48.60 CR	Mariya Kulchunova  Soviet Union	49.63	Irena Szewińska  Poland	51.27
800 m	Nikolina Shtereva  Bulgaria	1:56.29 CR	Yekaterina Poryvkina  Soviet Union	1:57.57	Anita Weiss  East Germany	1:57.92
1500 m	Totka Petrova  Bulgaria	4:03.13 CR	Giana Romanova  Soviet Union	4:03.38	Natalia Mărășescu  Romania	4:03.74
3000 m	Svetlana Guskova  Soviet Union	8:52.00	Maricica Puica  Romania	8:52.66	Vesela Yatsinska  Bulgaria	8:52.89
100 m hurdles (Wind: -1.1 m/s)	Tatyana Anisimova  Soviet Union	12.77 CR	Grażyna Rabsztyn  Poland	12.85	Daniela Teneva  Bulgaria	13.17
400 m hurdles	Marina Makeyeva  Soviet Union	54.82 CR	Karin Rossley  East Germany	55.10	Silvia Hollmann  West Germany	56.74
4 × 100 m	East Germany Christina Brehmer Romy Schneider Ingrid Auerswald Marlies Göhr	42.09 CR	Soviet Union Vera Komisova Vera Anisimova Tatyana Anisimova Lyudmila Kondratyeva	42.29	Great Britain Helen Barnett Wendy Clarke Kathy Smallwood Heather Hunte	43.18
4 × 400 m	East Germany Gabriele Kotte Christina Brehmer Brigitte Köhn Marita Koch	3:19.62 CR	Soviet Union Irina Bagryantseva Nina Zyuskova Tatyana Prorochenko Maria Kulchunova	3:20.39	Great Britain Joslyn Hoyte-Smith Ruth Kennedy Verona Elder Donna Hartley	3:27.89
High jump	Rosemarie Ackermann  East Germany	1.99 CR	Sara Simeoni  Italy	1.94	Urszula Kielan  Poland	1.92
Long jump	Brigitte Wujak  East Germany	6.89	Doina Anton  Romania	6.60	Lidiya Gusheva  Bulgaria	6.47
Shot put	Ilona Slupianek  East Germany	20.93	Nunu Abashidze  Soviet Union	19.75	Ivanka Petrova  Bulgaria	19.63
Discus throw	Evelin Jahl  East Germany	68.92	Svetlana Melnikova  Soviet Union	66.06	Svetla Bozhkova  Bulgaria	62.82
Javelin throw	Eva Raduly-Zörgö  Romania	66.28	Ruth Fuchs  East Germany	65.46	Tessa Sanderson  Great Britain	62.38
WR world record | AR area record | CR championship record | GR games record | NR national record | OR Olympic record | PB personal best | SB season best | WL world leading (in a given season)

The winners qualified for the "A" final.

Men Held on 21 and 22 July in Karlovac, Yugoslavia[2] Pos. Nation Points 1  Yugoslavia 195.5 2  Romania 97.5 3  Hungary 97 4  Czechoslovakia 97 5  Finland 96.5 6  Bulgaria 87 7   Switzerland 77.5 8  Belgium 58.5

Women Held on 21 July in Antony, France[2] Pos. Nation Points 1  Romania 96.5 2  Hungary 86 3  France 83 4  Finland 65 5   Switzerland 59 6  Czechoslovakia 58 7  Sweden 52.5 8  Yugoslavia 40

All semifinals were held on 30 June and 1 July.^[2] First two teams qualified for the "A" final (plus Italy as the host). Places 3–5 qualified for the "B" final.

Semifinal 1 Held in Lüdenscheid, West Germany Pos. Nation Points 1  West Germany 141 2  Poland 136 3  Italy 101 4  Czechoslovakia 93 5  Hungary 87 6  Greece 70 7  Austria 55 8  Denmark 34

Semifinal 2 Held in Geneva, Switzerland Pos. Nation Points 1  East Germany 150 2  France 108 3   Switzerland 95 4  Finland 94 5  Yugoslavia 90 6  Spain 89 7  Netherlands 58 8  Ireland 36

Semifinal 3 Held in Malmö, Sweden Pos. Nation Points 1  Soviet Union 139 2  Great Britain 106 3  Bulgaria 99 4  Romania 91 5  Belgium 90.5 6  Sweden 83 7  Norway 69 8  Portugal 41

^[2]

First two teams qualified for the "A" final (plus Italy as the host). Places 3–5 qualified for the "B" final.

Semifinal 1 Held in Sofia, Bulgaria, on 30 June Pos. Nation Points 1  East Germany 109.5 2  Bulgaria 102 3  Romania 91 4   Switzerland 57.5 5  Finland 55 6  Belgium 54 7  Norway 44 8  Spain 27

Semifinal 2 Held in Sittard, Netherlands, on 1 July Pos. Nation Points 1  Soviet Union 115 2  Poland 98 3  Czechoslovakia 67 4  Sweden 66 5  Italy 65 6  Netherlands 60 7  Ireland 42 8  Portugal 26

Semifinal 3 Held in Cwmbran, United Kingdom, on 1 July Pos. Nation Points 1  West Germany 109 2  Great Britain 105 3  Hungary 90 4  France 69 5  Yugoslavia 61 6  Austria 43 7  Denmark 39 8  Iceland 23

Preliminary round was held on 16 and 17 June in Luxembourg City. First three teams advanced to the semifinals.

Pos.	Nation	Points
1	Portugal	74
2	Denmark	65.5
3	Ireland	54
4	Luxembourg	53.5
5	Iceland	51

• European Cup results (Men) from GBR Athletics
• European Cup results (Women) from GBR Athletics