Germany’s Amanal Petros and Finland’s Alisa Vainio win European Champions marathon in record times

Germany’s Amanal Petros and Finland’s Alisa Vainio won the men’s and women’s gold medals, respectively. Each won in championship-record times at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Sunday.

Women’s race

Vainio, 28, won in a time of 2:22:26, taking nearly three minutes off the previous championship record held by French woman Christelle Daunay from the 2014 event.

The Finnish athlete is the fastest European this year, with a 2:20:39 performance from February’s Seville marathon. Sunday, she ran even splits throughout. Vainio split halfway in 70:40 on the rolling course. Through the 5km looped course around the city centre. Her three-minute lead at halfway had extended to nearly five by the finish.

Hungary’s Lili Anna Vindics-Toth took silver in 2:27:21. Great Britain’s Abbie Donnelly finished third for bronze in 2:27:33. It was Great Britain’s first-ever marathon medal in this event. Donnelly led GB to the team title, which is the total time between the three qualified athletes. Natasha Wilson finished fifth in 2:27:54, and Rose Harvey finished 14th in 2:30:34.

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“I can’t believe it,” said Donnelly, Britain’s first European marathon medallist since 1974.

“It was such an exciting race, it was just about managing the pace, being cautious in the early surges, and just staying strong.

“It (a medal) was an optimistic goal coming in. I had a bit of hamstring trouble in April so my block has been a bit different to normal, which probably wasn’t a bad thing. It’s easy to be a bit overcooked, so if anything, I maybe timed it just right.”

“The crowd got me to the end. I had a bit of an out-of-body experience and was just being screamed at, which I love.”

Vianio set a course record, while Vindics-Tóth ran to a new personal best.

Men’s race

Amanal Petros won the men’s race, leading nine athletes to break the former European championship record of 2:09:51, held by Belgium’s Koen Naert since 2018.

Petros ran 2:09:11, winning by seven seconds over Italy’s Pietro Riva, who took silver. Three seconds behind him was Gashua Ayale of Israel. The team title was won by Israel, which fielded three Ethiopian-born athletes, Ayale, Tadesse Getahon, and Haimro Alame—who finished third, fifth, and eighth.

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Ayale told the Ynet news site that on the final stretch, “I told the [other runners] that the war was between us and the Germans. There were three Israelis in the group, and I told them that this was the time to give it everything we had in our legs, and we achieved our goal.”

Like in the women, the men were even in their pacing. The lead group of 24 athletes ran 65:01 to 65:04 through halfway, which included defending champion Richard Ringer of Germany. He ended up finishing 10th.

Ringer won European gold in 2022 in Münich. He has a personal best time of 2:05:46 from the 2024 running of the Valencia Marathon.

The 31-year-old Petros holds the national record in the marathon at 2:04:03. He won silver at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.

Results

Sunday, August 16