Men's 200 metres at the 1978 European Athletics Championships
Venue	Stadion Evžena Rošického
Location	Prague
Dates	31 August (heats & semi-finals) 1 September (final)
Competitors	26 from 15 nations
Winning time	20.16
Medalists
Pietro Mennea    Italy   Olaf Prenzler     Switzerland   Peter Muster    East Germany
← 1974 1982 →

1978 European Athletics Championships
Track events
100 m	men	women
200 m	men	women
400 m	men	women
800 m	men	women
1500 m	men	women
3000 m		women
5000 m	men
10,000 m	men
100 m hurdles		women
110 m hurdles	men
400 m hurdles	men	women
3000 m steeplechase	men
4 × 100 m relay	men	women
4 × 400 m relay	men	women
Road events
Marathon	men
20 km walk	men
50 km walk	men
Field events
Long jump	men	women
Triple jump	men
High jump	men	women
Pole vault	men
Shot put	men	women
Discus throw	men	women
Hammer throw	men
Javelin throw	men	women
Combined events
Pentathlon		women
Decathlon	men

The men's 200 metres at the 1978 European Athletics Championships was held in Prague, then Czechoslovakia, at Stadion Evžena Rošického on 31 August, and 1 September 1978.^[1]

The winning margin was 0.45 seconds. With the conclusion of the 2024 championships, this remains the greatest winning margin in the men's 200 metres at these championships, a feat which was equalled in 2012 by Churandy Martina of the Netherlands.

According to an unofficial count, 26 athletes from 15 countries participated in the event.

31 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Pietro Mennea	Italy	20.70	Q
2	Leszek Dunecki	Poland	21.01	Q
3	Dragan Zarić	Yugoslavia	21.13	Q
4	David Jenkins	Great Britain	21.16	Q
5	Roland Bombardella	Luxembourg	21.17
6	Lambert Micha	Belgium	21.36
			Wind: +0.5 m/s

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Aleksandr Aksinin	Soviet Union	20.97	Q
2	Joseph Arame	France	21.32	Q
3	Antti Rajamäki	Finland	21.34	Q
4	Klaus Thiele	East Germany	21.36	Q
5	Luděk Bohman	Czechoslovakia	21.39
6	Mike Bayle	Luxembourg	21.48
7	Vilmundur Vilhjálmsson	Iceland	21.80
			Wind: -1.5 m/s

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Pascal Barré	France	20.78	Q
2	Vladimir Ignatenko	Soviet Union	20.98	Q
3	Luis Sarría	Spain	21.18	Q
4	Martin Pelach	Czechoslovakia	21.48	Q
5	Pavel Pavlov	Bulgaria	21.50
	Renno Roelandt	Belgium	DNF
			Wind: -0.2 m/s

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Zenon Licznerski	Poland	20.82	Q
2	Vladimir Ivanov	Bulgaria	20.96	Q
3	Olaf Prenzler	East Germany	20.97	Q
4	Peter Muster	Switzerland	21.04	Q
5	Trevor Hoyte	Great Britain	21.24
6	Patrick Barré	France	21.27
7	Marián Králik	Czechoslovakia	21.47
			Wind: +0.2 m/s

31 August

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Pietro Mennea	Italy	20.40	Q
2	Peter Muster	Switzerland	20.63	Q
3	Leszek Dunecki	Poland	20.64	Q
4	Olaf Prenzler	East Germany	20.69	Q
5	Vladimir Ignatenko	Soviet Union	20.74
6	Joseph Arame	France	21.08
7	Antti Rajamäki	Finland	21.19
8	Martin Pelach	Czechoslovakia	21.59
			Wind: -0.2 m/s

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
1	Pascal Barré	France	20.96	Q
2	Vladimir Ivanov	Bulgaria	20.96	Q
3	Aleksandr Aksinin	Soviet Union	21.08	Q
4	Zenon Licznerski	Poland	21.10	Q
5	Luis Sarría	Spain	21.24
6	Dragan Zarić	Yugoslavia	21.28
7	David Jenkins	Great Britain	21.59
	Klaus Thiele	East Germany	DNF
			Wind: 0.0 m/s

1 September

Rank	Name	Nationality	Time	Notes
	Pietro Mennea	Italy	20.16	CR
	Olaf Prenzler	East Germany	20.61
	Peter Muster	Switzerland	20.64
4	Leszek Dunecki	Poland	20.68
5	Pascal Barré	France	20.70
6	Zenon Licznerski	Poland	20.74
7	Aleksandr Aksinin	Soviet Union	20.87
8	Vladimir Ivanov	Bulgaria	20.92
			Wind: -0.2 m/s