Key events
The women’s shot put final and women’s hammer throw qualification are under way in the field after an opening ceremony packed full of drums, dancing and dignitaries’ speeches.
The defending champion in the shot put is Jessica Schilder of the Netherlands, who threw the European lead of 21.09m in Shanghai in May. Germany’s Yemisi Mabry won bronze in 2024 and is the only other European woman to throw over 20m this year but hasn’t beaten her best of 20.37m since February. Dutch silver medallist from 2024 Jorinde van Klinken is here too.
The medal standings after the first three throws, all familiar names …
1. Jessica Schilder (Neth) 20.52m
2. Jorinde van Klinken (Neth) 19.64m
3. Yemisi Mabry (Ger) 19.20m
There are sellouts for evening sessions later in the week but it will not be a completely full house tonight at Alexander Stadium. There are some affordable tickets – the cheapest tonight were £26 for adults and £13 for juniors – but these are at the back of the north stand. If you want to sit on the home straight, it would have cost you £150 tonight – with no junior prices. It costs £110 to be on the back straight, with no junior prices there either.
There are two tiers to the evening sessions. Tonight is billed as a ‘super’ evening session while tomorrow and Wednesday are not as super and are cheaper to attend (£110 home straight, £90 back straight).
What’s happening this week? We’ve got a handy day-by-day schedule to show you what and who to look out for in Birmingham from now until Sunday.
Monday 10 August
Amy Hunt is a warm favourite for the women’s 100m (9.50pm), but no British athlete has won more European golds than Dina Asher-Smith, the defending champion. Elsewhere, Norwegian superstar Jakob Ingebrigtsen returns from an achilles injury in the men’s 5,000m (8.40pm) and there’s also an intriguing 4x400m mixed relay final (9.40pm).
Tuesday 11 August
Keely Hodgkinson begins the defence of her women’s 800m title (12.05pm). The big event of the night is the men’s 100m, where Italian Marcel Jacobs is the favourite to defend his crown (9.45pm), with Britain’s Romell Glave his closest challenger. The women’s 110m hurdles (9.30pm) should also be a cracker.
Wednesday 12 August
Local lad Matt Hudson-Smith is expected to win the men’s 400m gold for a third time (8.50pm), while Emily Newnham should medal in the women’s 400m hurdles (9.08pm), although Slovakia’s Emma Zapletalova is the wide-margin favourite.
Thursday 13 August
Hodgkinson goes in the women’s 800m semi-finals (12:10pm). A stacked evening card includes a men’s 800m final (9.28pm) where Max Burgin and Ben Pattison should feature and the women’s 200m where Hunt (9.50pm) will be favourite. In the women’s steeplechase (8.30pm), Britain’s Elise Thorner should cap a breakout season with gold.
Friday 14 August
All eyes will be on the women’s 800m final (9.45pm), which could be the race of the year. In June Swiss star Audrey Werro ran the third fastest time in history to beat Hodgkinson in Stockholm. Can the Brit get her revenge? Former 400m hurdles world champion Femke Broeders-Bol is a live threat too. Elsewhere Karsten Warholm should win another men’s 400m hurdles (8.40pm).
Saturday 15 August
Nafi Thiam’s withdrawal with injury means there will be a new heptathlon champion for the first time since 2016 and Katarina Johnson-Thompson will hope to take advantage (7.45pm). Britain also have medal chances in the men’s and women’s 4x100m relay (9.33 and 9.48pm), a strong men’s 1500m featuring Jake Wightman (9.07pm) and the women’s 400m (8.10pm) where Amber Anning should medal.
Sunday 16 August
Britain will expect a bumper day with Georgia Hunter Bell favourite in the women’s 1500m (9.13pm), along with strong medal chances in the women’s and men’s 4x400m relay (9.33pm and 9.48pm) and the mixed 4x100m relay (8.35pm). Early birds can catch the women’s and men’s marathon (7:30am and 8:10am), while Mondo Duplantis will hope to get his season back on track with gold in the men’s pole vault (7.30pm)
Session schedule
What’s happening this evening? Here’s the full schedule of events, with medal events in bold. All times BST.
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7.03pm – shot put (women) final
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7.10pm – hammer throw (women) qualifying
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7.35pm – 100m hurdles (women) heats
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7.55pm – triple jump (women) qualifying
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8.10pm – 100m (women) semi-finals
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8.33pm – shot put (men) final
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8.40pm – 5,000m (men) final
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9pm – 3,000m steeplechase (women) heats
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9.40pm – 4x400m relay (mixed) final
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9.50pm – 100m (women) final
Great Britain will hope to have at least two contenders in the women’s 100m final, with Amy Hunt and Dina Asher-Smith in the hunt for a medal. Asher-Smith is the defending European champion from Rome 2024 but Hunt beat her in the British championships here in Birmingham earlier this summer. Luxembourg’s Patrizia van der Weken is one to watch.
Jakob Ingebrigtsen has six European golds (and no other medals) to his name and goes in the men’s 5,000m final after a year spent battling injury and illness. France’s Jimmy Gressier, the world 10,000m champion from last year, and Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli will provide stiff competition.
Ireland’s 4x400m mixed relay team have not qualified to defend their title in Birmingham, leaving the door open for Great Britain, Norway and Belgium to have a crack at this event that sees each team field two men and two women.
In the field, Jessica Schilder and Italy’s Leonardi Fabbri are the strong favourites for gold in the women’s and men’s shot put finals.
What happened this morning? We’ve already had plenty of heats and qualification rounds on track and field today. The morning session kicked off with the men’s 400m heats, where the lower-ranked athletes got their chance to progress to the semi-finals. Ireland had good results in that, with Jack Raferty coming 2nd in his heat, and in the men’s 800m heats, where Mark English won his race. Max Burgin of Great Britain also progressed in the 800m as a heat winner.
There were three heats of the women’s 100m for lower-ranked athletes, with Imani Lansiquot ensuring there will be four Britons in the semi-finals this evening by coming 2nd in her race. “To run sub-11 and equal my PB, I’m very excited for later,” she said. Britain’s Lina Nielsen won her women’s 400m hurdles heat, while the Dutch women’s shot put favourite Jessica Schilder sailed through qualifying for tonight’s final, although Germany’s Yemisi Mabry threw further. Italy’s Leonardi Fabbri also progressed as best in the field in men’s shot put qualifying. Men’s long jump and men’s hammer throw qualification also took place.
The opening ceremony starts at a (for now) sparsely populated Alexander Stadium with everyone on their feet for God Save the King. This is, remarkably, the first time the European Championships have been held in Great Britain in their 92-year history.
Here are Sean Ingle’s previews of the week ahead …
Preamble
Hello and welcome to the first evening session of the European athletics championships. After Rome two years ago, it’s Birmingham’s turn to take centre stage as the Alexander Stadium hosts the best the continent has to offer, with plenty of British interest to keep the home crowd on the edge of their seats.
Tonight we kick off in style with two blockbuster finals. Norway’s superstar long-distance specialist Jakob Ingebrigtsen attempts to put injury and illness worries behind him in the men’s 5,000m final at 8.40pm (BST). He’ll have competition in the form of France’s world 10,000m champion, Jimmy Gressier. The session culminates in the women’s 100m final at 9.50pm as Dina Asher-Smith goes out to defend her title from two years ago against GB teammate Amy Hunt, who won Commonwealth silver in Glasgow last month. There’s also the fun and games of a mixed 4x400m relay.
We’ll kick off with an opening ceremony in a few minutes’ time and then the action on the field begins just after 7pm, with the first track event just after 7.30pm. A full schedule is coming up.
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