Hosts Belgium will have strong prospects both individually and in the team race in the half marathon at the inaugural European Running Championships in Brussels-Leuven on 12-13 April.
The European Running Championships will be streamed live from start to finish with English-language commentary on the European Athletics website.
Their team is headed by Juliette Thomas and Paris 2024 Olympian Chloe Herbiet who have respective - and recently set - lifetime bests of 69:48 and 70:04.
However, their chances of winning individual gold will depend largely on the race plans of European 10,000m silver medallist and European 5km record-holder Diane Van Es from the Netherlands who has entered both the 10km and half marathon.
Van Es is the fastest entrant by over one minute with a lifetime best of 68:03 set earlier this year in the New York Half Marathon. The Dutchwoman will begin as the outstanding favourite if she chooses to contest the longer of the two distances.
If Van Es opts for the 10km, she will face a line-up replete with Europe’s finest including Nadia Battocletti - who beat Van Es for the 10,000m title in Rome last year - along with Slovenia’s former European U20 5000m champion Klara Lukan who leads the 2025 European list with 30:26, three seconds faster than Van Es’ lifetime best.
However, it is not completely implausible that Van Es could contest both events in Brussels-Leuven. The half marathon takes place on the Saturday (12) while the 10km will be held on the Sunday (13) just before the marathon.
20-year-old Phillips leads British assault
The youngest athlete in the race is Great Britain’s Natasha Phillips but the 20-year-old, who finished fourth in the 5000m at the 2023 European Athletics U20 Championships, is another leading medal aspirant despite her relative inexperience at senior level.
Phillips is the fastest European U20 in history with a lifetime best of 70:18 set in the Valencia Half Marathon and if she continues at her current rate of improvement, Phillips could be the first European U23 record-holder. The target time for record ratification in a mixed race stands at 70:00.
The Spaniards have also entered a strong team who will be challenging for both individual and team honours. The fastest of their triumvirate is Paris 2024 Olympian Meritxell Soler (70:21 PB) who is joined by Maria Jose Perez (70:55) and Ikram Rharsalla (71:05).
Another medal contender is Germany’s Esther Pfeiffer who is due to contest the half marathon in Leuven only six days after setting a lifetime best of 69:15 in cold conditions in the Berlin Half Marathon on Sunday. The 27-year-old is clearly in excellent shape but will two half marathons in six days prove slightly too ambitious?
The half marathon has only been contested twice before at the European Athletics Championships, both times in Olympic-year editions of the championships.
Portugal’s Sara Moreira won the inaugural half marathon in Amsterdam 2016 before Norway’s Karoline Bjerkeli Grøvdal took gold in Rome 2024 last June in a championship record of 68:09.
Entries are still open for 10km, half marathon and marathon events for recreational runners providing a unique opportunity to run with the elite athletes for the first time ever at a European Athletics Championships.
Steven Mills for European Athletics