BIRMINGHAM: Spain’s Maria Perez and Italy’s Sofia Fiorini set world records for the women’s half-marathon and marathon race walks, respectively, when winning gold medals at the European Athletics Championships on Saturday.
Perez’s time of one hour 30 minutes and six seconds was well inside the world record standard set by World Athletics, and the Spaniard claimed European gold for the first time since winning the 20-km race in 2018 in setting the inaugural record.
Fiorini stormed to gold in the marathon, lapping most of the other competitors to finish in three hours 15 minutes and 11 seconds, surpassing her previous best time by over 10 minutes.
The half-marathon and marathon race walks became official distances from Jan 1 and World Athletics set 1:30:30 as the world record performance standard required for the inaugural women’s half-marathon and 3:17:00 for the women’s marathon.
Perez, the world record holder for the 35-km event and a four-time world champion, beat Italian Alexandrina Mihai in second, with Ukraine’s Lyudmila Olyanovska taking bronze, in the half-marathon race walk which replaces the 20-km race.
Fiorini finished second at the World Athletics race walking team championships in Brazil in April in a time of 3:25:42, but in Birmingham on Saturday her rivals had no answer once the Italian made her move with less than 10 km remaining.
Poland’s Katarzyna Zdzieblo stuck with Fiorini for much of the race and took silver, coming in over 4-1/2 minutes behind the Italian, with Spain’s Raquel Gonzalez finishing third.
WERRO CLAIMS 800M GOLD
On Friday, Audrey Werro outstripped home favourite Keely Hodgkinson to claim the 800m title, a race dubbed for the ages.
An electric evening session at a sold-out 23,000-capacity Alexander Stadium was also one of records.
There was a record fourth 400m hurdles continental title for Karsten Warholm and a fourth for Italy’s Gianmarco Tamberi in the high jump, while his team-mate Nadia Battocletti bagged a historic double distance double.
The women’s 800m was the final event of the night and the excitement was palpable as the athletes were introduced one-by-one with fireworks.
Olympic champion Hodgkinson went out strong, but Switzerland’s Werro proved to be stronger as she has for much of this season, reeling in her British rival and dominating the race to claim victory in a championship record of 1min 54.81sec.
Femke Broeders-Bol continued her astonishing transition from the 400m hurdles, in which she is twice a former world champion, with bronze.
There was another championship record by the irrepressible Warholm in the 400m hurdles as he totally dominated the race to sweep to victory in 46.63sec.
Germany’s Emil Agyekum took silver in 47.87, with Turkiye’s Ismail Nezi claiming bronze in 48.26.
Warholm’s gold was his second of these championships, the hurdler having been part of the Norwegian quartet that won the 4x400m mixed relay on Monday.
DOUBLE ITALIAN GOLD
There was double joy for Italy. Reigning champion Battocletti, who won the 5,000m on Tuesday, bagged a historic second successive distance double by winning the 10,000m in 31:41.17.
Since her first double in Rome two years ago, Battocletti has established herself among the world’s very best, claiming Olympic and world silver medals and confirming her status as Europe’s outstanding women distance runner.
Uniquely, the Italian is the reigning European champion on the track, road and cross country.
Dutch veteran Maureen Koster claimed silver, with Belgium’s Jena van Lent taking bronze.
There was also a fourth Euro title for her team-mate Tamberi.
Tamberi kept his nerve in a tight battle with Ukraine’s world indoor champion Oleh Doroshchuk, the latter failing to clear the winning 2.32m height.
Another Italian, Matteo Sioli, took bronze.
Germany’s Owen Ansah followed up on his 100m bronze by winning gold in the men’s 200m in 19.95sec.
Ansah, facing calls from his country’s anti-doping agency for a four-year ban for refusing to undergo a doping test last month, fired out of a strong bend to reel in Britain’s Zharnel Hughes.
Hughes, the 2022 Euro champion, ended up with silver in 20.16sec, with bronze shared between Swiss defending champion Timothe Mumenthaler and Italian veteran Fausto Desalu.
World silver medallist Jorinde van Klinken of the Netherlands claimed victory in the women’s discus with a best of 67.67m.
It was the first time since 2010 a new champion was crowned in the event after seven-time European champ Sandra Elkasevic announced she would not be competing this season.
Germany’s Shanice Craft took silver with 65.72m and Sweden’s Vanessa Kamga bronze (64.61).
Published in Dawn, August 16th, 2026