Amanal Petros wins marathon gold at European Athletics Championships in Birmingham with championship record

Petros claims first major title

Amanal Petros won marathon gold at the European Athletics Championships in Birmingham on 16 August, completing the 42.195 km course in a championship record of 2:09:11. The 31-year-old German finished seven seconds ahead of Italy's Pietro Riva (2:09:18), with Israel's Gashau Ayale third in 2:09:21. The victory delivers Petros his first senior international title, eleven months after he narrowly missed gold at the World Championships in Tokyo and had to settle for silver. In Munich four years ago, Petros had finished a close fourth, just missing the podium.

Decisive solo break

Petros broke away from the lead group approximately 15 km from the finish on a demanding course through Birmingham's city centre. The route consisted of a 5 km hilly loop with steep climbs and roughly 120 curves, completed eight times. After several kilometres, Petros, Ringer, and Fitwi had moved to the front, where a lead group formed. Simon Boch later joined them. Petros then launched an attack that none could answer, running nearly 20 km alone to the finish. On the final metres he was able to ease off without pushing to his limit, yet still crossed the line faster than anyone ever had at a European Championships marathon.

Petros said the race was enormously difficult but that his preparation had paid off.

The race was terrible, terribly hard. But with a little red wine I'll be back on my feet quickly.

When pressed on how much wine, he calculated "one, two, three glasses" with a grin. He added that his plan had been to settle the race early, and that his altitude training in Kenya had been crucial. He said he had everything under control throughout.

German team success

Samuel Fitwi finished ninth as the second-best German, while Richard Ringer, who won European marathon gold in Munich in 2022, placed tenth. The German trio of Petros, Fitwi, and Ringer secured silver in the team classification. Petros is only the second German to win the European marathon title, following Ringer. At the 2024 European Championships in Rome, where only a half marathon was held due to the Olympics, Petros had taken bronze. He also reclaimed the German record in December in Valencia with a time of 2:04:03.

Women's race

Finland's Alisa Vainio won the women's marathon in 2:22:26 with a dominant start-to-finish performance. The best German finisher was Laura Hottenrott in 16th place (2:31:15). The German women's team did not place in the top three of the team standings. The women started 40 minutes before the men at temperatures of around 14 degrees Celsius.

From refugee to champion

Born in Eritrea in 1995, Petros fled with his mother to Ethiopia at the age of two and later reached Germany at 16, where he was housed in an asylum seeker facility in Bielefeld. He acquired German citizenship and joined the club Hannover 96. He serves as a sports soldier in the Bundeswehr and was described by the Bundeswehr's sports magazine as "Pistorius' toughest infantryman in terms of pace." After silver in Tokyo and a fourth-place finish in Munich, the Birmingham title marks his arrival at the summit of European marathon running.