Italy broke a 36-year-old championship record in the first heat of the men’s 4x400m at the 2026 European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on Friday (14) morning.
In summary
- Italy break a long-standing championship record in the first heat of the men's 4x400m
- Hosts Great Britain & NI qualify for both the men's and women's 4x400m finals
- France DQ'd for a lane infringement in the men's 4x400m
Lorenzo Benati anchored L’Azzurri to victory in the first heat in 2:58.10, eclipsing their national record as well as the previous championship record of 2:58.22 which was set by Great Britain & NI in Split 1990.
The Italians won by over one second from reigning champions Belgium (2:59.35) with Germany winning the battle for the third automatic qualifying spot in 3:01.07 ahead of Hungary (3:01.24) and Switzerland (3:01.31) who both qualified on time.
Two days after winning individual bronze in a Dutch 400m record of 44.41, Jonas Phijffers strode down the home straight with a 44.38 anchor leg to take the Netherlands to victory in a far more competitive second heat in 3:00.98 ahead of France and hosts Great Britain & NI.
However, the French were subsequently disqualified for a lane infringement, promoting the Brits to second (3:01.24) and Poland, who won the world indoor 4x400m title in this city eight years ago with a world record, to third (3:01.33).
Great Britain & NI qualified fastest for the women’s 4x400m with an accomplished performance in the first heat, clocking 3:22.25 to win by over four seconds from Spain (3:26.41) and France (3:26.44) with Belgium (3:26.59) and Poland (3:26.59) finishing fourth and fifth respectively to qualify on time.
Newly crowned European 400m hurdles champion Emma Zapletalová produced the fastest leg across the two heats, clocking 49.3 on the second leg to help Slovakia to a national record of 3:27.02. They missed out on a place in the final by one spot.
A somewhat depleted Dutch team without Femke Broeders-Bol and Lieke Klaver who are resting up for their respective individual finals still won the second heat in 3:25.00 ahead of Italy (3:25.99) and Germany (3:26.24).
A Norwegian team which was lacking Henriette Jaeger surprisingly went out in the heats with a 3:27.71 clocking to finish fourth in the second heat, almost seven seconds slower than their winning time at the World Relays in Gaborone in early May.
What they said
Lorenzo Benati (ITA)
"We are going to be resting between now and the final - we'll be in the physio room cracking jokes and we will be ready for that final. We're hungry for gold as we will try our best to achieve that result. If other nations want to beat us, they will have to show us what they can do."
Jonas Phijffers (NED)
"As a team, everyone did what they had to do, and that gave me the chance to finish it off and give us that first position. Time to prepare ourselves for the final now."
Daniel Segers (BEL)
"We can never underestimate our opponents [Italy] but we are not focused on the others, we are focused on ourselves. We did the job, we saved energy and we are ready to go all out in the final."
Myrte Van der Schoot (NED)
"We know if we make it through the final, we are favourites for gold. But you need to make that final first, and that is never an easy thing to do. I am super proud of how the team performed and how we made it through to that final today."