The European Marathon Cup is a quadrennial team marathon competition between European countries. Initially a stand-alone championship race inaugurated in 1981, the race has been held in conjunction with the European Athletics Championships since 1994. Individual medallists are now included in the European Championships medal table, while team medals are awarded separately from the main championships. Each national team may enter six runner and the team score is the sum of the times of the team's three fastest finishers. The IAAF World Marathon Cup (first held in 1985) follows a similar format.