Germany’s Amanal Petros won his first-ever major title with a championship record in the men’s marathon at the Birmingham 2026 European Athletics Championships on Sunday (16).
The world silver medallist was heavily favoured to win, and he reinforced the case for being the continent’s leading male marathon runner.
He pulled away soon after halfway and, although he slowed dramatically in the closing stages, still had plenty in hand to jog home seven seconds clear of Italy’s Pietro Riva in 2:09:11.
Riva won his second successive silver at the European Athletics Championships, having finished runner-up in the half marathon at Roma 2024. Bronze went to Israel’s Gashau Ayale, repeating his result from the Munich 2022 European Athletics Championships.
In summary...
- Petros runs away from field and jogs home for gold
- Riva adds marathon silver to half marathon silver from Roma 2024
- Ayale spearheads Israel team gold
The opening 10km saw a group of nine, including Petros, build a small gap of 12 seconds. But the chasing pack reeled them in to create a leading group of 22 athletes by 15km.
Great Britain’s Mahamed Mahamed and Germany’s Simon Boch each spent some time leading the pack through to the halfway point.
Soon afterwards, Petros took over up front and started to up the pace slightly – if not quite breaking up the lead group, he at least stretched it.
Then, soon after 25km, Petros broke clear to establish a healthy 50-metre lead. Ringer tried to keep his German teammate in his sights and broke away from the rest of the pack.
But Ringer could not make any inroads and was swallowed up again by a chasing group consisting of Mahamed, Riva, Israel’s Haimro Alame, Sweden’s Suldan Hassan, France’s Valentin Goundouin and Germany’s Samuel Fitwi.
As Petros pressed on up front, it became a battle for silver, with Ayale also moving into contention. Hassan and Mahamed both spent some time leading, while Ringer conserved energy within the group.
By 40km, Ringer had lost contact, with Mahamed also starting to toil. Riva, Hassan and Ayale emerged as the fresher athletes to fight out the medals.
Meanwhile, Petros had built a lead of nearly one minute with just 2km to run. The German noticeably slowed in the closing stages but had enough in hand to stroll to gold.
Riva burst away to win silver in 2:09:18, just three seconds ahead of bronze medallist Ayale, who in turn got the better of Hassan by three seconds, with the Swede placing fourth in 2:09:24.
Fifth place went to another fast-finishing Israeli, Tadesse Getahon, in 2:09:31 and, along with Ayale and eighth-placed Alame (2:09:45), his performance helped Israel secure the team title ahead of Germany and France.
What they said...
Amanal Petros: “I am someone who learns from my mistakes. I just chose one of the best tactics. I was going very well but it was not easy.
“At the beginning, I was going back and front, back and front - it took a little bit of energy, but I made the right decision to move.
“The road was very hard and was one of the biggest challenges today. It was not easy. In the end. I am very happy that I managed it.
“I trained 200km per week in Kenya, the home of champions, at 2,500m. I prepared very well for this one and I was also very well mentally and physically ready.
“My mum is the main motivation for me. My mum is one of the best in the world. She is my queen and she is my energy. Always, when I think about her, I get new energy and motivation.
“Now, I am looking forward to getting some regeneration and I will be trying to enjoy the gold medal and to think of all the hard challenges and hard work I had to go through.”
Gashau Ayale: “I am very happy I made the podium. I did not complete my job, but I am satisfied with what I achieved today.
“I am also happy that my team came to Birmingham as (team) gold medallists from Munich and Brussels last year. The main goal for the us was to keep that title.”