World 10,000m bronze medallist Andreas Almgren has one more objective left to achieve in 2025.
While many of his rivals will be starting their off-seasons, the Swede has announced he is targeting the European half marathon record of 59:13 held by Switzerland’s Julien Wanders since 2019 in the Valencia Half Marathon on 26 October.
“I'm going to work for five more weeks,” Almgren told SVT after landing home in Sweden on Tuesday.
“It's been a long trip, I'm very bad at sleeping on an airplane so I don't have many hours of sleep in my body. I'll probably go home and try to go out for a run. I'm thinking of running around 20 kilometres this afternoon anyway,” he added.
Almgren’s bronze medal in the 10,000m marked a long overdue breakthrough after many near-misses in major championships, dating all the way back to the 2015 European Athletics Indoor Championships in Prague where he finished fourth in the 800m.
In recent seasons, Almgren has moved through the distances with great success. The 30-year-old has already set two European records this year, clocking 26:53 for 10km in Valencia in January before smashing the European 5000m record with victory in Stockholm in June with 12:44.27.
Almgren has only contested one half marathon but the Swede showed excellent promise at the distance, moving to second on the European all-time list on his debut with a 59:23 clocking to finish second in the Barcelona Half Marathon last year.