Twelve medallists from the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham will be in action on the roads at the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Copenhagen on 19-20 September.
And those 12 medallists include the reigning men’s European 1500m, 5000m and 10,000m champions in Birmingham, all of whom have credible chances of concluding their summer seasons with global medals in the Danish capital.
European record watch in the men’s half marathon?
There will be significant interest in the men’s half marathon which features European record-holder Andreas Almgren who demolished the field in the 10,000m in Birmingham before announcing that he will make his marathon debut in New York on 1 November.
Almgren has only contested two half marathons in his career but he made history last year by becoming the first European to break 59 minute-barrier with a 58:41 clocking in Valencia which makes him the third fastest in the field behind Kenyans Nicholas Kipkorir (58:08) and Gideon Rono (58:38) whose team also includes 2023 world half marathon silver medallist Daniel Ebenyo.
Almgren will also face a strong European contingent in Copenhagen including Yemaneberhan Crippa. The Italian ran the second fastest half marathon in history by a European with 59:01 in Naples in late February before taking the first marathon victory of his career in the Paris Marathon in April in 2:05:18.
Like Almgren, Crippa is also targeting the New York Marathon on 1 November.
There is a good chance the European all-time list could undergo some significant revision this weekend as Copenhagen is renowned for being home to one of the world's fastest half marathon courses.
A strong French team has also been selected, including Etienne Daguinos who steps up in distance after winning 5000m bronze in Birmingham. Daguinos briefly held the European 10km record with 27:04 and also ran a 59:27 half marathon in Berlin this spring, a time which he hopes to improve this weekend.
"This winter I didn’t have ideal preparation before running 59:27. I was far from the form which I had hoped for. This time the objective is to run at a level around the 58:40-58:50 mark," he said in a recent interview with FFA.
Other leading European entrants include Daguinos’ training partner Bastien Augusto and Peter Lynch who became the first Irishman to break the one hour-barrier earlier this year before smashing the Irish marathon record with 2:06:08 in the London Marathon.
Ingebrigtsen versus Gressier for the 5km title?
With Jimmy Gressier opting for the 5km rather than the half marathon, this sets up the tantalising prospect of a head-to-head with Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen who will be in contention for his third major title in five weeks.
Gressier smashed his European 5km record in Lille in April with a 12:51 clocking, coming within two seconds of the world record. This makes him the fastest in the field as he endeavours to return to a global podium just over a year after sprinting to 10,000m gold at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo.
"My goal is to contend for a podium spot and secure another world medal. I’m hoping for a fast race that pushes everyone to the limit, leaving the strongest runners to battle it out at the finish," said Gressier.
By contrast, Ingebrigtsen has comparatively little road racing experience and has never contested a road 5km before but the Norwegian - who also celebrates his 26th birthday on Saturday - can never be discounted in a championship environment.
With only a few weeks of full training under his belt having undergone Achilles surgery at the start of the year, Ingebrigtsen kicked to his fourth successive European 5000m title - outpacing the likes of Gressier on the last lap - before unleashing a last 100 metres of 12.6 to win the World Ultimate Championship in Budapest.
The field for the 5km also includes Switzerland’s Dominic Lobalu - a distant silver medallist behind Almgren in the 10,000m in Birmingham - with Portugal’s Jose Carlos Pinto and Norway’s Narve Gilje Nordas other possible medal contenders from a European standpoint.
And while they might not necessarily feature in the shake-up for medals, the Danish team includes two familiar names: Joel Ibler Lillesø and Axel Vang Christensen. Lillesø won 10,000m gold at the 2025 European Athletics U23 Championships and Christensen is a two-time winner of the U20 title at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships.
The men’s mile includes five medallists from the 2026 European Athletics Championships across three different events, including surprise European champion Stefan Nillessen from the Netherlands and bronze medallist Andrew Coscoran.
From a huge entry of 71 athletes, they will be joined on the start-line by European 800m silver and bronze medallists Marino Bloudek from Croatia and Mohamed Attaoui from Spain as well as Luxembourg’s Ruben Querinjean who won silver in the 3000m steeplechase in Birmingham and recently set a national road mile of 4:02.3 for victory over an international field on home soil in Luxembourg.
The line-up also includes reigning world 1500m champion Isaac Nader from Portugal who has entered both the mile and 5km at the championships and Great Britain's Jake Heyward who has battled back from three years of injuries and three Achilles tendon surgeries to run a 3:46.73 mile on the track.
Heyward also finished an excellent second in the prestigious Fifth Avenue Mile in New York on Sunday in 3:45.8.
Birmingham medallists and European record-holders confirmed
With European 10,000m bronze medallist Jana Van Lent from Belgium pulling out of the 5km, only three medallists from Birmingham 2026 will be competing in the women’s events in Copenhagen.
European 1500m bronze medallist Patricia Silva from Portugal will compete in the women's mile while European 5000m silver and bronze medallists Marta Garcia from Spain and Micol Majori from Italy will contest the 5km in Copenhagen.
The 5km line-up also includes European record-holders Diane Van Es from the Netherlands and Great Britain’s Megan Keith both of whom will be looking to conclude their summer seasons on a positive note after disappointing performances in the 10,000m in Birmingham. Van Es was a DNF while Keith faded to eighth having led in the latter stages.
Van Es officially holds the European 5km record with 14:33 (Nadia Battocletti’s 14:32 from Tokyo in May 2025 was not formally ratified) and Keith briefly held the European 10km record with 30:07 from Castellon, a time which was smashed by Slovenia's Klara Lukan who became the first European in history to break 30 minutes for 10km with a 29:51 clocking in Laredo.
Lukan will be contesting the half marathon in Copenhagen. Her lifetime best of 66:43 makes her the fastest European entrant in the field, just ahead of Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal who is due to return to competition just over four months after giving birth to her first daughter.
Grøvdal has a 66:55 lifetime best for the half marathon and the multiple European cross country champion is one of the very few athletes who also raced when Copenhagen staged the 2014 World Half Marathon Championships, finishing in 20th-place.