By The European Times | Created at 2026-08-16 13:10:41 | Updated at 2026-08-16 14:38:25
1 hour ago
Marathons open Sunday before pole vault, distance finals and relays close Britain’s first European Athletics Championships
Birmingham enters the final day of the European Athletics Championships with a programme that moves from city-road endurance to an evening of stadium spectacle. The women’s and men’s marathons open Sunday’s competition before Mondo Duplantis, Europe’s leading distance runners and national relay teams take over Alexander Stadium.
By Daniel Mercer, Sports Correspondent, The European Times
A championship reaches the city
The women’s marathon is scheduled to begin at 07:30 BST, followed by the men’s race at 08:10. The road events offer Birmingham a final opportunity to bring the championships beyond ticketed stadium seats and into public space.
That matters for a competition being staged in Great Britain for the first time in its 92-year history. Major championships are often judged by television audiences, medal tables and attendance figures, but their public value also depends on whether residents can encounter the event as part of the city rather than as a closed production.
Birmingham City Council said the marathon and race-walking programme was designed to give spectators access to elite competition outside Alexander Stadium. The road-event plan placed the marathons on the closing morning after Saturday’s half-marathon and marathon race walks.
For the athletes, the early starts are practical as well as presentational. August distance races require organisers to manage heat, hydration, medical coverage and road conditions carefully. Those safeguards are part of the competition, not an administrative detail, particularly during a European summer repeatedly shaped by extreme temperatures.
Duplantis carries the evening spotlight
The championship returns to Alexander Stadium in the evening for the women’s javelin and long jump, the men’s pole vault and 3,000-metre steeplechase, the women’s 1,500 metres and three relay finals. The official closing-day timetable also includes a mixed 4×100-metre relay, followed by the women’s and men’s 4×400-metre finals.
The clearest individual focus will be on Sweden’s Duplantis. The world-record holder came to Birmingham seeking a fourth consecutive European outdoor pole-vault title, eight years after his 6.05-metre breakthrough at the 2018 championships in Berlin.
His dominance can make the discipline appear predictable, but pole vault rarely permits complacency. Changing wind, the precision of the approach and the small margins involved in selecting poles and passing heights can turn a commanding favourite into a vulnerable competitor. Birmingham’s unsettled summer conditions add another variable.
The final also gives Duplantis’s European rivals a significant stage. Even when gold appears beyond reach, championship medals affect national programmes, athlete funding and the confidence required to challenge again at global level. A contest does not lose its competitive meaning simply because one participant has pushed the standard far beyond what was previously considered normal.
Relays turn individual achievement into shared responsibility
The relay programme will provide a different closing rhythm. Athletes who have spent the week competing as individuals must exchange control, trust teammates and adapt to decisions about running order and recovery.
Relays also reveal the depth of national athletics systems. A country may produce one exceptional sprinter, but a successful relay requires several athletes, technical coaching, reliable changeovers and enough competition opportunities to build familiarity. The result therefore reflects development structures as much as individual speed.
The mixed 4×100 metres adds another layer. Mixed events can give women and men equal visibility within the same contest, but their credibility depends on clear rules, serious preparation and permanent inclusion rather than novelty value. Birmingham will help show whether the discipline can establish a durable place in major championship programmes.
What Birmingham leaves behind
Alexander Stadium was redeveloped for the 2022 Commonwealth Games, making these championships another measure of whether costly sporting infrastructure can sustain a useful life after its first global event.
Legacy cannot be reduced to the number of competitions secured. It includes community access, support for local clubs, affordable opportunities for young athletes and facilities that remain usable after broadcasters and sponsors leave. The European Times’ review of the past week placed Birmingham alongside other continental championships that are increasingly judged on governance, inclusion and public responsibility as well as performance.
Sunday will still be decided by competition. Marathoners must manage distance and conditions; field-event athletes must find precision under pressure; steeplechasers must combine pace with concentration; and relay teams must make every exchange count.
Yet the broader judgment will come later. A successful European Athletics Championships should leave more than memorable results. It should strengthen trust in the event, widen interest in the sport and give Birmingham’s communities reasons to see the stadium and its surrounding roads as part of their own sporting life.
