2025 Review | A record year for Europe

2025 will go down as a record-breaking year for European athletics. There were twelve major events hosted by European Athletics, the most ever in a single calendar year.

There was a record number of participants at European Athletics events, bolstered by 28,000 mass participation runners who took part in the inaugural European Running Championships in Brussels-Leuven.

There were also 12 European senior records set in 2025, three of them – Mondo Duplantis’ 6.30m in the men’s pole vault, Mykolas Alekna’s 75.56m in the men’s discus, and Jakob Ingebrigtsen’s 3:29.63 in the indoor 1500m and 3:45.14 in the indoor mile – which were also new world records.

Here is a month-by-month rundown of an incredible year:

January

• Andreas Almgren became the first European to break 27 minutes for the men’s 10km, setting a new European record of 26:53 in Valencia
• World 400m indoor record holder Femke Bol announced she would focus on the relays at the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships

February

• The European Champions Clubs Cup Cross Country took place in Albufeira, Portugal, where Benfica, Playas de Castellón, Sporting Clube de Braga, Cus Pro Patria Milano, Fenerbahce and Sporting Clube de Portugal all claimed titles

• Norway’s Sander Skotheim set a new European indoor record for the heptathlon with 6484 points in Tallinn
• Jakob Ingebrigtsen opened his season in blistering style, setting new world records in the indoor 1500m (3:29.63) and indoor mile (3:45.14) in Liévin, France
• Jimmy Gressier set a new European indoor 5000m record of 12:54.92 in Boston, USA

March

• Jimmy Gressier proved he was equally adept on the roads, taking the European 5km record with 12:57 in Lille and becoming the first European to break 13 minutes for the discipline
• Germany’s Joanna Martin set a new European U20 indoor record of 52.22 in the women’s 400m
• Mondo Duplantis set the pattern for the year ahead, improving his own pole vault world record to 6.27m in Clermont-Ferrand
• European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov hailed the Apeldoorn 2025 European Athletics Indoor Championships as setting “a new benchmark” for indoor athletics. The Dutch hosts won a record seven gold medals, Jakob Ingebrigtsen claimed his third successive 1500m/3000m double, and Ditaji Kambundji and Sander Skotheim set new European records as they won the 60m hurdles (7.67) and men’s heptathlon (6558) respectively

• At the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing, European athletes won 11 gold medals. Ingebrigtsen (1500m/3000m), Saga Vanninen (women’s pentathlon), Skotheim (men’s heptathlon) and Jeremiah Azu (men’s 60m) repeated their successes from Apeldoorn 2025 two weeks earlier
• The Nicosia 2025 European Throwing Cup took place and saw world leads for Silja Kosonen (women’s hammer, 77.07m), Adriana Vilagos (women’s javelin, 66.88m) and Vanessa Kamga (women’s discus, 63.25m)

April

• The inaugural European Running Championships took place in Brussels-Leuven and were a huge success, with 28,000 mass participation runners following home elite winners including Nadia Battocletti (women’s 10km) and Jimmy Gressier (half marathon), as 160,000 spectators watched

• The European Athletics High Performance Conference took place in Madrid, bringing together over 80 professionals from across Europe working to deliver high performance in athletics
• Mykolas Alekna of Lithuania set a massive new world record of 75.56m in the men’s discus in Ramona, USA

May

• Nadia Battocletti set a new European 5km record, clocking 14:32 in Tokyo
• Massimo Stano set a world record in the men’s 35km race walk of 2:20:43 at the Poděbrady 2025 European Race Walking Team Championships. It was one of four championship records set as Spain topped the medal table, led by María Pérez, who won the women’s 35km race
• At the European 10,000m Cup in Pacé, France, Efrem Gidey (men’s) and Jana van Lent (women’s) became the first winners from Ireland and Belgium respectively in the 27 stagings of the event

• Germany’s Julian Weber launched a monster throw of 91.06m to win the men’s javelin at the Doha Diamond League
• The Polish city of Bydgoszcz was awarded both the European Athletics U23 Championships and European Athletics U20 Championships for 2027 by the European Athletics Council

June

• Mondo Duplantis fulfilled another ambition, improving his world record to 6.28m in front of his home fans at the Stockholm Diamond League, while fellow Swede Andreas Almgren set a new European 5000m record of 12:44.27

• The European Athletics Team Championships provided a thrilling spectacle in Madrid (1st Division) and Maribor (2nd and 3rd Divisions). Italy retained their 1st Division title, Belgium won the 2nd Division and Iceland triumphed in the 3rd Division. World leads were set by Austria’s Victoria Hudson (women’s javelin, 67.76m) and Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou (men’s long jump, 8.46m)

July

• There were 12 Championship Best Performances at the Bergen 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships. Outstanding athletes included the Netherlands’ Niels Laros, who completed a men’s 800m and 5000m double, and Serbia’s Angelina Topić, who completed the full set of European U18, U20 and U23 high jump gold medals

August

• The Tampere 2025 European Athletics U20 Championships revealed a fresh generation of brilliant talent. Standout performances included Poland’s Hubert Trościanka, who set a new world U20 record of 8514 points in the decathlon, and double winners Italy’s Kelly Doualla (100m/4x100m), Great Britain’s Innes FitzGerald (3000m/5000m), Norway’s Håkon Moe Berg (1500m/3000m) and Czechia’s Michal Rada (400m hurdles/4x400m)

• Tampere 2025 also welcomed the new Athletes’ Zone, a dedicated space designed by young people, for young people, as part of the European Athletics Race for Respect safeguarding campaign
• Mondo’s relentless upward trajectory continued as he raised the world record mark to 6.29m in Budapest

September

• At the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, European athletes won 12 gold medals, claimed by Portugal’s Isaac Nader (men’s 1500m), France’s Jimmy Gressier (men’s 10,000m), Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis (men’s pole vault), Italy’s Mattia Furlani (men’s long jump), Portugal’s Pedro Pichardo (men’s triple jump), Sweden’s Daniel Ståhl (men’s discus), Germany’s Leo Neugebauer (men’s decathlon), Switzerland’s Ditaji Kambundji (women’s 100m hurdles), the Netherlands’ Femke Bol (women’s 400m hurdles), Spain’s María Pérez (women’s 35km and 50km race walks) and the Netherlands’ Jessica Schilder (women’s shot put)

• Duplantis won with an incredible world record of 6.30m, while Pichardo (17.91m), Bol (51.54) and Pérez (women’s 20km race walk, 1:25:54) all set world leads on their way to gold
• Duplantis, Pérez, Bol and Ståhl all defended the titles they had won two years earlier in Budapest
• Over 86,000 tickets were sold in the pre-sale for the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships
• At the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships in Canfranc, Spain, Germany’s Nina Engelhard won a mountain running double in the uphill and classic disciplines
• There were also world titles for Switzerland’s Rémi Bonnet (men’s uphill), France’s Frédéric Tranchand (men’s short trail), Spain (men’s short trail team), France (men’s long trail team), Italy (women’s uphill team), Sweden’s Tove Alexandersson (women’s short trail), Sweden (women’s short trail team), Italy (women’s long trail team) and Germany’s Julia Ehrle (women’s U20 mountain classic)

October

• The biggest-ever European Athletics corporate gathering took place, with the Congress, Council and Convention all held in Batumi, Georgia, on the eve of the Golden Tracks Awards ceremony
• Mondo (men’s), Bol (women’s), Trościanka (men’s rising star) and Switzerland’s Audrey Werro (women’s rising star) picked up the major awards at the Golden Tracks

• Tallinn, Estonia, and Karlstad, Sweden, were awarded the European Athletics U20 Championships in 2028 and 2030 respectively by the European Athletics Council
• Twice world and European 400m hurdles champion Femke Bol announced a shock switch to the 800m from 2026
• Sweden’s Andreas Almgren set his third European record of the year, clocking 58:41 at the Valencia Half Marathon
• European Athletics hosted AthTech25 in San Marino, bringing together digital experts, federations and organisers to explore and showcase digital innovations for athletics

November

• European Athletics convened a landmark Human Rights Workshop in Geneva for all Local Organising Committees (LOCs) and major event bidders
• France hosted the first-ever national race walking championships over the new marathon championship distances. Martin Madeline-Degy (men) and Camille Moutard (women) became the inaugural champions in Salaise-sur-Sanne

December

• With a record 560 participants, the Lagoa 2025 SPAR European Cross Country Championships were hailed as “one of the best ever” by European Athletics President Dobromir Karamarinov

• Italy’s Nadia Battocletti (senior women) and Great Britain’s Innes FitzGerald (U20 women) both retained their titles, while there was a thrilling sprint finish in the senior men’s race as Spain’s Thierry Ndikumwenayo pipped France’s Jimmy Gressier, helping Spain top the medal table with three gold, two silver and three bronze