Key events

Men’s shot put: Britain’s Scott Lincoln has work to do to win a medal here. Sweden’s Wictor Petersson moves up into third ahead of him with a throw of 20.86m in his fourth attempt out of six. The Italian duo of Leonardo Fabbri (22.31m) and Zane Weir (21.12m) are in the other medal positions. Fabbri is very much on course to defend his title. Lincoln’s fourth throw is a foul – he’s still on 20.81m.

Women’s 3,000m steeplechase: Meyer and Krause cruise to the line ahead of Renouard. Adva Cohen of Israel completes the top eight automatic qualifiers. Britain’s Sarah Tait finishes down in 12th and will not reach the final.

Women’s 3,000m steeplechase: Meyer, Krause and France’s Flavie Renouard are in a leading group of three with one lap to go. They’re having no problems clearing those big, wide hurdles and the water jumps. The top eight qualify for the final.

Women’s 3,000m steeplechase: The first of two semi-finals is under way and the German duo of Lea Meyer and Gesa Krause lead the way with four laps to go.

Ingebrigtsen glanced across at the crowd as he crossed the line – no smile, just a look of steely determination – and his momentum takes him sprinting round the first bend. Someone throws a Norway flag at him before he finds some loved ones in the stands and his brother Filip, who didn’t finish, joins him. What a comeback.

Photograph: Tolga Akmen/EPA

🏅 Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Norway) wins the men's 5,000m!

Wow! It looks like it’s going to be Gressier and Bremm fighting for the line on the home straight but Ingebrigtsen finds a gap and turns on the burners! In his first race of 2026, the Norwegian great adds a seventh European gold to his collection! Should we ever have been in doubt?

Final standings …
1. Jakob Ingebrigtsen (Nor) 13:15.29
2. Florian Bremm (Ger)
3. Etienne Daguinos (Fra)
4. Jimmy Gressier (Fra)

A sensational home straight gives Jakob Ingebrigtsen the gold medal. Photograph: Petr David Josek/AP

Men’s 5,000m: Germany’s Florian Bremm is trying to make a move at the bell. Gressier still leads as they approach the final bend …

Men’s 5,000m: There’s some pushing and shoving and a Dutch athlete goes down. Lobalu is on Gressier’s shoulder. Ingebrigtsen is on the inside behind them. One and a half laps to go.

Men’s 5,000m: Ingebrigtsen hits the front! Gressier responds and they give each other a little look. Lobalu is there too. Three laps to go.

Men’s 5,000m: With four laps to go, it’s Lobalu, Gressier and Pinto jostling for position at the front. Ingebrigtsen is stealthily making his way round the outside of the field.

Men’s 5,000m: Ingebrigtsen is still hanging around at the back, with Lobalu and Kimeli in good positions just off the front. The pace has picked up a bit.

Now Lobalu makes a move to the very front with six laps to go.

Men’s 5,000m: Finland’s Tuomas Heikkilä moves to the front after 3mins to try to pick up the pace.

Men’s shot put: On the infield, Italy’s Leonardo Fabbri takes a step towards defending his title with a second throw of 21.78m. He’s got half a metre on the rest of the field. GB’s Scott Lincoln goes third with a throw of 20.81m.

Men’s 5,000m: Almost 13 laps of the track have begun at a pedestrian pace. It’s single file at the moment, with Ingebrigtsen near the back as usual.

Men’s 5,000m: Ingebrigtsen has plenty of support in this race. His brother Filip is out there with him and the pair share a water bottle on the track as they limber up. There are two other Norwegians.

The competition will come from Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu, France’s Jimmy Gressier, the world 10,000m champion, Portugal’s José Pinto and Belgium’s Isaac Kimeli. James West is the only British representative but Ireland have three athletes.

They line up across a staggered start … and they’re off.

Men’s 5,000m: The final is upon us. Jakob Ingebrigtsen takes to the track for the first time this year after recovering from achilles surgery.

Sean Ingle went to visit him in Norway back in January, so he had to take his warm coat …

Does it annoy him when some people suggest he doesn’t have a finishing kick in the 1500m? He takes a deep breath. “No, I think it’s just ignorance,” he says, before making an analogy worthy of Eric Cantona. “If you look out of the window, it’s white. You can see it snowing. But if you dive deeper, under the snow it’s grass. That’s how it is with performance. People draw conclusions on the factors that are actually visible.”

At home with Jakob Ingebrigtsen. Photograph: Marie von Krogh/The Guardian

The women’s 100m final startlist, in order of semi-final times …

Amy Hunt (GB) 10.99sec
Geraldine di Tizio-Frey (Swi) 11.02
Ewa Swoboda (Pol) 11.04
Patrizia van der Weken (Lux) 11.08
Delphine Nkansa (Bel) 11.09
Dina Asher-Smith (GB) 11.10
Zaynab Dosso (Ita) 11.11
Salomé Kora (Swi) 11.12

The gun fires at 9.50pm (BST) later on.

Women’s 100m: Swoboda makes easy work of progressing in a time of 11.04sec and you sense she has plenty more to give. Belgium’s Delphine Nkansa takes the other qualifying spot, with Williams in 4th. Asher-Smith and Kora both qualify for the final as fastest losers after that relatively slow semi-final.

Ewa Swoboda wins the third of the women’s 100m semi-final. Photograph: Mike Egerton/PA

Women’s 100m: Poland’s Ewa Swoboda in lane 5 headlines the third and final semi-final. Her season’s best is 10.98sec. Christania Williams in lane 4 is here representing Austria after switching from Jamaica, with whom she won 4x100m relay silver at the Rio 2016 Olympics. Williams competed for Austria in the bobsleigh at the Winter Olympics earlier this year. Busy.

Women’s 100m: Di Tizio-Frey and Italy’s Zaynab Dosso fly out of the blocks and hold on, with the European leader holding on to win in 11.02sec. Lansiquot is 3rd in 11.16 but that is not enough to dislodge Asher-Smith or Salomé Kora as the two fastest losers. Neita finishes 6th.

“I am really frustrated, I won’t lie,” says Lansiquot. “I know I was good enough to make that final. I’m absolutely gutted … Back to the drawing board.”

“To be back running, to even make the European championships, is a miracle in itself,” says Neita, who broke her foot in April.

Women’s 100m: There are two more British athletes in the next semi-final with Daryll Neita and Imani Lansiquot going in lanes 2 and 4. Geraldine di Tizio-Frey of Switzerland in lane 7 is the fastest in Europe this season with a time of 10.96sec in the Swiss championships in Zurich in May.

Women’s 100m: Hunt takes her time before she motors through the field in the middle 30m to win the first semi-final in 10.99sec. Van der Weken hangs on for the second qualifying spot ahead of Asher-Smith, who will have to wait to see if her time of 11.10sec (a season’s best for her) is good enough. In the meantime, she has a comfy chair to sit in.

Amy Hunt (second from left) storms into the final. Photograph: Paul Ellis/AFP/Getty Images

Women’s 100m: It’s semi-final time. The first of three races includes defending champion Dina Asher-Smith and her GB teammate Amy Hunt, who won Commonwealth silver in Glasgow. Patrizia van der Weken of Luxembourg should be in the mix too. The top two qualify automatically for the final later tonight.

Women’s hammer throw: Katrine Koch Jacobsen (Denmark) and Beatrice Nedberge Llano (Norway) have qualified automatically for the final in Group A of qualification by throwing further than the 71.50m standard, with Group B to come later on. The top 12 throws at the end of the night will progress to Wednesday’s final.

🏅 Jessica Schilder (Netherlands) wins women's shot put

Schilder defends her title and does it in style with a final throw of 20.73m! Neither her compatriot Jorinde van Klinken nor Germany’s Yemisi Mabry could put her under any pressure with their final attempts and Schilder beats her previous best of 20.52m on throw three.

Final standings
1. Jessica Schilder (Neth) 20.73m
2. Jorinde van Klinken (Neth) 19.64m
3. Yemisi Mabry (Ger) 19.50m

It’s the same top three, in the same order, as the last European championships in Rome.

Jessica Schilder takes gold in the women’s shot put. Photograph: Dylan Martinez/Reuters

Women’s shot put: The provisional medallists are about to throw for the final time. The standings are as you were …

1. Jessica Schilder (Neth) 20.52m
2. Jorinde van Klinken (Neth) 19.64m
3. Yemisi Mabry (Ger) 19.50m

Women’s 100 hurdles: Germany’s Rosina Schneider draws level with Norway’s Lovise Skarbøvik Andresen after 60m of the third heat but pulls away in the final 20m to win. The Norwegian was still on for a fast time but fell flat on her face at the final hurdle. She leaves the scene in tears. Four athletes went faster than GB’s Emma Nwofor there, which means she finishes 13th overall and misses out on the top 12 places for the semi-finals.

Women’s 100m hurdles: Martine Kolbeinshavn Hjørnevik of Norway bursts through the middle in lane 5 to win the second heat ahead of Belgium’s Yanla Ndjip-Nyemeck in lane 2. Ester Bendova of Czechia lost her stride after hitting a hurdle early on and does not finish. Nwofor is down to 9th on the overall times with one heat to go.

It’s time for the women’s 100m hurdles heats. There are three races and the 12 fastest times will progress to tomorrow evening’s semi-finals.

After a slow start, Italy’s Celeste Polzonetti surges past Denmark’s Ida Beiter Bomme from lane 2 after finding her rhythm halfway down the straight. Her winning time is 12.80sec.

Britain’s Emma Nwofor is fourth in 13.04sec: “I definitely wanted a sub-13. I’m very capable of doing the 12.80 that the winner ran. That start was terrible, I know my coach is screaming at the moment! It is what it is. I’m just going to have to hang tight and see what happens.”

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

Jessica Schilder leads in the women's shot put final. Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP

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). Still …

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.

• 7.03pm – shot put (women) final

• 7.10pm – hammer throw (women) qualifying

• 7.35pm – 100m hurdles (women) heats

• 7.55pm – triple jump (women) qualifying

• 8.10pm – 100m (women) semi-finals

• 8.33pm – shot put (men) final

• 8.40pm – 5,000m (men) final

• 9pm – 3,000m steeplechase (women) heats

• 9.40pm – 4x400m relay (mixed) final

• 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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