The 1981 European Cup was the 8th edition of the European Cup of athletics. ^[1] It was the last edition to feature multiple stages of competition before being replaced by the promotion/relegation system since 1983.

The "A" Finals were held in Zagreb, Yugoslavia. The first two teams qualified for the 1981 IAAF World Cup.

Held in Zagreb on 15 and 16 August. ^[2]

Men

Pos.	Nation	Points
1	East Germany	128
2	Soviet Union	124.5
3	Great Britain	106.5
4	West Germany	97
5	Italy	75
6	Poland	74
7	France	71
8	Yugoslavia	41

Women

Pos.	Nation	Points
1	East Germany	108.5
2	Soviet Union	97
3	West Germany	74
	Great Britain	74
5	Bulgaria	72
6	Poland	53.5
7	Hungary	41
8	Yugoslavia	20

Event	Gold		Silver		Bronze
100 m (Wind: -0.9 m/s)	Allan Wells  Great Britain	10.17	Frank Emmelmann   East Germany	10.21	Hermann Panzo  France	10.29
200 m (Wind: +0.3 m/s)	Frank Emmelmann   East Germany	20.33 CR	Allan Wells  Great Britain	20.35	Patrick Barré  France	20.60
400 m	Hartmut Weber   West Germany	45.32	Mauro Zuliani  Italy	45.35	Andreas Knebel   East Germany	45.76
800 m	Sebastian Coe  Great Britain	1:47.03	Willi Wülbeck   West Germany	1:47.72	Olaf Beyer   East Germany	1:47.73
1500 m	Olaf Beyer   East Germany	3:43.52	Nikolay Kirov  Soviet Union	3:43.68	Steve Cram  Great Britain	3:43.72
5000 m	Dave Moorcroft  Great Britain	13:43.18	Valeriy Abramov  Soviet Union	13:43.69	Hansjörg Kunze   East Germany	13:43.72
10,000 m	Werner Schildhauer   East Germany	28:45.89	Julian Goater  Great Britain	28:55.04	Karl Fleschen   West Germany	28:57.74
3000 m steeplechase	Mariano Scartezzini  Italy	8:13.32 CR	Bogusław Mamiński   Poland	8:17.23	Patriz Ilg   West Germany	8:21.13
110 m hurdles (Wind: -0.6 m/s)	Mark Holtom  Great Britain	13.79	Andreas Schlisske   East Germany	13.85	Romuald Giegiel   Poland	13.88
400 m hurdles	Volker Beck   East Germany	48.94	Harald Schmid   West Germany	49.12	Dmitriy Shkarupin  Soviet Union	49.71
4 × 100 m	Poland Krzysztof Zwoliński Zenon Licznerski Leszek Dunecki Marian Woronin	38.66	Soviet Union Andrey Shlyapnikov Nikolay Sidorov Aleksandr Aksinin Vladimir Muravyov	38.80	France Philippe Le Joncour Bernard Petibois Antoine Richard Hermann Panzo	38.83
4 × 400 m	Italy Stefano Malinverni Alfonso Di Guida Roberto Ribaud Mauro Zuliani	3:01.42	Soviet Union Pavel Roshchin Vitaliy Fedotov Viktor Burakov Viktor Markin	3:01.69	Great Britain Roy Dickens Harry Cook Steve Scout David Jenkins	3:02.93
High jump	Valeriy Sereda  Soviet Union	2.30	Gerd Nagel   West Germany	2.28	Massimo Di Giorgio  Italy	2.26
Pole vault	Jean-Michel Bellot  France Konstantin Volkov  Soviet Union	5.40			Keith Stock  Great Britain	5.30
Long jump	Uwe Lange   East Germany	7.98	Shamil Abbyasov  Soviet Union	7.93	Joachim Busse   West Germany	7.82w
Triple jump	Jaak Uudmäe  Soviet Union	16.97	Aston Moore  Great Britain	16.86	Miloš Srejović   Yugoslavia	16.54
Shot put	Udo Beyer   East Germany	21.41	Yevgeniy Mironov  Soviet Union	20.33	Ralf Reichenbach   West Germany	19.70
Discus throw	Armin Lemme   East Germany	64.06	Dmitriy Kovtsun  Soviet Union	59.60	Alwin Wagner   West Germany	59.16
Hammer throw	Yuriy Sedykh  Soviet Union	77.68	Karl-Hans Riehm   West Germany	75.86	Roland Steuk   East Germany	73.34
Javelin throw	Detlef Michel   East Germany	90.86 CR	Dainis Kûla  Soviet Union	88.40	Michał Wacławik   Poland	88.26
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: -1.0 m/s)	Marlies Göhr   East Germany	11.17	Kathy Smallwood  Great Britain	11.27	Olga Zolotaryova  Soviet Union	11.36
200 m (Wind: -1.6 m/s)	Bärbel Wöckel   East Germany	22.19	Kathy Smallwood  Great Britain	22.65	Natalya Bochina  Soviet Union	23.08
400 m	Marita Koch   East Germany	49.43	Gaby Bussmann   West Germany	50.83	Irina Nazarova  Soviet Union	51.31
800 m	Martina Steuk   East Germany	1:57.16	Lyudmila Veselkova  Soviet Union	1:57.25	Jolanta Januchta   Poland	1:58.50
1500 m	Tamara Sorokina  Soviet Union	4:01.37 CR	Ulrike Bruns   East Germany	4:02.21	Anna Bukis   Poland	4:04.38
3000 m	Angelika Zauber   East Germany	8:49.61 CR	Yelena Sipatova  Soviet Union	8:49.99	Paula Fudge  Great Britain	8:54.59
100 m hurdles (Wind: -2.4 m/s)	Tatyana Anisimova  Soviet Union	12.91	Kerstin Knabe   East Germany	13.08	Lucyna Langer   Poland	13.20
400 m hurdles	Ellen Neumann   East Germany	54.90	Ana Kasteckaja  Soviet Union	56.34	Genowefa Błaszak   Poland	57.21
4 × 100 m	East Germany Annelies Walter Bärbel Wöckel Gesine Walther Marlies Göhr	42.53	Great Britain Wendy Hoyte Kathy Smallwood Beverley Goddard Shirley Thomas	43.03	Soviet Union Olga Zolotaryova Olga Nasonova Lyudmila Kondratyeva Natalya Bochina	43.26
4 × 400 m	East Germany Dagmar Rübsam Martina Steuk Bärbel Wöckel Marita Koch	3:19.83	Soviet Union Nadezhda Lyalina Tatyana Litvinova Irina Baskakova Irina Nazarova	3:24.85	Great Britain Linda Forsyth Michelle Scutt Verona Elder Joslyn Hoyte-Smith	3:27.27
High jump	Ulrike Meyfarth   East Germany	1.94	Lyudmila Zhecheva   Bulgaria	1.92	Yelena Popkova  Soviet Union	1.86
Long jump	Sigrid Ulbricht   East Germany	6.86	Anna Włodarczyk   Poland	6.66	Tatyana Kolpakova  Soviet Union	6.59
Shot put	Ilona Slupianek   East Germany	21.12	Verzhinia Veselinova   Bulgaria	20.77	Galina Isayeva  Soviet Union	18.15
Discus throw	Mariya Petkova   Bulgaria	69.08	Galina Savinkova  Soviet Union	68.46	Evelin Jahl   East Germany	67.32
Javelin throw	Antoaneta Todorova   Bulgaria	71.88 WR, CR	Tessa Sanderson  Great Britain	65.94	Ingrid Thyssen   West Germany	63.86
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 1 and 2 August in Athens, Greece [2] Pos. Nation Points 1  France 85 2   Hungary 78.5 3   Czechoslovakia 73.5 4   Finland 70 5  Spain 62 6   Greece 48

Women Held on 2 August in Pescara, Italy [2] Pos. Nation Points 1  Poland 64.5 2   Czechoslovakia 60 3  Italy 57 4   Romania 55 5  Netherlands 46 6   Finland 32.5

All semifinals were held on 4 and 5 July. ^[2] First two teams qualified for the "A" final (plus Yugoslavia as the host). Places 3–4 (plus Greece as the host) qualified for the "B" final.

Semifinal 1 Held in Lille, France Pos. Nation Points 1   East Germany 143 2  Italy 125 3  France 109 4   Czechoslovakia 95.5 5  Belgium 80.5 6  Netherlands 63 7   Greece 57 8   Denmark 44

Semifinal 2 Held in Helsinki, Finland Pos. Nation Points 1  Great Britain 134 2   Soviet Union 128 3   Finland 115 4   Yugoslavia 88 5   Bulgaria 83 6  Sweden 75 7   Norway 64 8   Turkey 20

Semifinal 3 Held in Warsaw, Poland Pos. Nation Points 1  Poland 128 2   West Germany 127 3   Hungary 126 4  Spain 102 5   Switzerland 84 6   Austria 64 7  Portugal 51 8   Ireland 40

All semifinals were held on 5 July. ^[2] First two teams qualified for the "A" final (plus Yugoslavia as the host). Places 3–4 qualified for the "B" final.

Semifinal 1 Held in Bodø, Norway Pos. Nation Points 1   Soviet Union 107 2   Hungary 86 3  Italy 80 4   Romania 77 5   Norway 60 6  Belgium 55.5 7   Switzerland 49.5 8   Greece 27

Semifinal 2 Held in Edinburgh, United Kingdom Pos. Nation Points 1  Great Britain 111 2   Bulgaria 83 3  Netherlands 82.5 4   Finland 66.5 5  France 66.5 6   Yugoslavia 51 7  Spain 41 8   Denmark 38.5

Semifinal 3 Held in Frankfurt, West Germany Pos. Nation Points 1   East Germany 112 2   West Germany 97 3   Czechoslovakia 81 4  Poland 79 5  Sweden 66 6   Austria 43 7   Ireland 38 8  Portugal 24

First three teams advanced to the semifinals.

Held on 20 and 21 June in Esch-sur-Alzette, Luxembourg Men Pos. Nation Points 1   Denmark 71 2   Turkey 69 3   Ireland 64 4   Iceland 58 5   Luxembourg 37

Held on 20 June in Barcelona, Spain Women Pos. Nation Points 1  Spain 44 2   Greece 44 3  Portugal 34 4   Iceland 28

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