Britain's trampoline world champion Bryony Page is among the stars set to feature at the European Championships in Rimini ©Getty Images

Italy is set to host the European Championships in Trampoline, Tumbling and Double Mini-Trampoline (DMT) for the first time in Rimini tomorrow, with competition set to be wide open due to the absence of Russia and Belarus, who led last year's medals table.

Russia and Belarus were the only nations who collected more than one gold medal at last year's Championships, the former collecting 19 at their home event in Sochi and the latter six.

However, athletes and officials from both countries have been banned from European Gymnastics competitions due to the invasion of Ukraine, in line with recommendations from the International Olympic Committee.

A total of 26 National Federations are due to be represented in Rimini in their absence, with 308 senior and 240 junior gymnasts on the entry lists.

Reigning trampoline world champion Bryony Page of Britain, who took silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics and bronze at Tokyo 2020, is among the star names in the women's trampoline.

The Minsk 2019 European Games champion Léa Labrousse of France is likely to be among her main rivals for the continental crown, as she collected silver at last year's European Championships.

The women's DMT event looks set to be hotly contested, with three-time world champion Lina Sjöberg of Sweden bidding to go one better than her second-place finish in Sochi last year.

Tachina Peeters of Belgium faces an intriguing battle with reigning world champion Megan Kealy of Britain in her quest to defend her women's tumbling continental crown.

Belarus and Russia won a combined 25 gold medals at last year's European Championships, but have been banned from this year's competition due to the invasion of Ukraine ©Getty Images
Belarus and Russia won a combined 25 gold medals at last year's European Championships, but have been banned from this year's competition due to the invasion of Ukraine ©Getty Images

On the men's side, Portugal have a number of strong contenders in both the trampoline discipline in the form of Diogo Abreu, Pedro Ferreira and Lucas Santos, and the DMT in Tiago Sampaio Romao, Diogo Cabral and Diogo Fernandes.

The men's trampoline competition includes former European champion Mikhail Malkin of Azerbaijan and former world champion Kristof Willerton of Britain.

Competition is due to begin tomorrow at the Fiera Expo and Convention Centre with junior qualifiers in the trampoline discipline and the DMT and tumbling senior qualifiers, followed by the trampoline team junior finals.

The Championships are due to run until Sunday (June 5), with the trampoline team finals on Thursday (June 2) set to offer the first opportunity of medals in the senior category.

DMT men's and women's finals are scheduled for Friday (June 3), as well as the men's and women's senior team tumbling finals.

Senior synchronised trampoline finals are set to be staged on Saturday (June 4), with the remaining events scheduled for Sunday, including the senior trampoline finals, which are due to conclude the Championships.